Dilapidated Architecture (Visual Imagery)
The novel uses imagery of architecture in various states of disrepair and glory to indicate differences in social class and how an individual's status changes over time. For example, Cho Oyu, Judge Patel's colonial mansion in Kalimpong, exists in a state of dilapidation, its once-revolutionary indoor plumbing now "fixed with rubber bands and bamboo splints." This visual imagery symbolizes Judge Patel's irrelevance. During the British Raj, Judge Patel's British education and sensibilities were impressive status symbols. During the Gorkhaland movement, however, his colonial tastes mark him as morally decrepit.
In contrast to the imagery of faded glory are striking descriptions of squalor and poverty in both India and New York City. Though Gyan is highly educated and eloquent, he resides in a "small, slime-slicked cube" on the outskirts of Kalimpong, where homes were "cramped and wet, the smoke thick enough to choke." Biju resides in Manhattan, a city he believes is cosmopolitan and luxurious, with "no problem with water or electricity." However, Biju's basement residence in Harlem is in "a somber house" with a "tombstone facade" that has unreliable electricity and a single yellow toilet. Similarly, when Judge Patel first reaches England, he is surprised to find that "people could be poor and live unaesthetic lives" in "tiny grey houses." These descriptions highlight that poverty is a global problem and not a uniquely Indian phenomenon as Biju and Judge Patel initially believe and that people across the postcolonial world romanticize and idealize other nations and lifestyles, leading to disappointment and disillusionment.
Perfumes and Bodies (Olfactory Imagery)
The olfactory imagery of a person's scent is used throughout the text to signify class and belonging. When Jemu first arrives in England, strangers comment that he "stinks of curry," leading Jemu to "wash obsessively" and lighten his skin with a powder scented with the "crisp, light scents" of lavender. Similarly, Biju's employers express their racial prejudices by complaining about his body odor and hair oil, even going so far as to give him personal hygiene products, such as deodorant.
Even within Kalimpong, a person's scent is used to denote class. When Sai wanders into the poorer part of town searching for Gyan, she passes a woman who smells of "earth and smoke" carrying a child with the "oversweet intense smell" of boiling corn. These natural fragrances signify that this family lives closer to the elements and is thus impoverished in the post-colonial world.
Brutalized Bodies (Visceral Imagery)
The text uses the imagery of brutalized bodies to illustrate the severity of violence and poverty under which the characters suffer. For example, as political conditions worsen in Kalimpong, "trees were hung with limbs of enemies," and a man's body is found "slashed with a knife, his eyes gouged out." During the Indo-Nepal Treaty burning, chaos ensues, and "the heads of policemen came up on stakes." These graphic descriptions suggest that normal people can commit unthinkable acts under desperate circumstances and when "extraordinary hatred" becomes a "commonplace event."
When the drunk's wife begs Judge Patel for assistance, Sai notes that she looks "raped and beaten already," as her teeth "resembled a row of rotten corn kernels" and her back was "quite bent from carrying stone." This disturbing description illustrates that poverty itself is a form of violence.
Sex and Sexuality (Visceral Imagery)
Throughout the text, sex and sexuality are complicated by colonial prejudices. Gyan and Sai's physical relationship is described in ethereal, poetic terms, emphasizing the purity of their attraction before their relationship is soured by socio-political differences. They describe one another's bodies using appreciative and atypical comparisons; for example, Gyan proffers that Sai's "bones must be hollow" since her small hands are delicate and he notes that her eyes are "full of theater."
Judge Patel's first sexual experience is an act of violence; humiliated by his wife, Nimi, he rapes her in a moment of confused desire and hatred. The text describes Judge Patel's view of sex in vile, vulgar terms, an act of "suckering organs in an awful attack and consumption," mixed together with "the stench of urine" that "turned his civilized stomach." This vulgar description illuminates that for Judge Patel, who grew to hate his body while in England, sex is an act of power and revenge.
