At Parambil’s hospital ribbon-cutting, Philipose’s former editor visits Mariamma. He recalls Philipose’s work but knows nothing of Madras or the Condition until Mariamma explains the family history and her father’s autopsy. She urges him to publicize it, framing openness as essential to finding affected families and advancing her neurosurgical mission.

The resulting feature captivates readers and draws responses. Mariamma collects reports, including accounts of women labeled eccentric whose aversion to water and later neurological symptoms mirror her lineage. She proposes a counterpart to acoustic neuromas in the mind—a “tumor of thought”—and begins a systematic study to detect it in Philipose’s prolific journals.

Mariamma confronts practical hurdles: indecipherable tiny script, meandering topics, and no indexing. Encouraged by Uma, she spends evenings cataloging entries, her thoughts often drifting to Lenin’s uncertain fate. As her fluency grows, she notes Philipose’s mind leaping rapidly between subjects, perhaps a signature pattern.

She discovers passages radiating tenderness and awe for Elsie’s artistic genius, then, elsewhere, raw writings from after Ninan’s death: severe pain, self-reproach, opium-clouded thinking, and anger at Elsie’s long absence. The revelations wound Mariamma, threatening her idealized image of her father and her resolve to continue.

Overwhelmed, she seeks the Stone Woman in the dusk and reflects that the Condition may be inseparable from life’s mystery. She realizes her inquiry is as much about finding her mother’s essence as about decoding disease, reframing her purpose while continuing toward neurosurgical training.