Summary
After hearing of GNLF protests near Kalimpong, Biju calls his father for the first time in three years. The telephone line is unreliable, and the cook can only briefly yell false reassurances into the receiver until the line cuts out. The cook tells Biju that everyone is safe in Kalimpong—not mentioning how the police randomly torture civilians, all stores and services are closed, and neighbors are growing increasingly mistrustful of each other. Biju worries that if he stays in New York any longer, he will never see his father again. After his unsatisfying call, Biju also realizes that his father only loves him out of habit and obligation.
As tensions worsen, Noni and Lola cannot obtain their usual luxuries. When GNLF boys cut the electric lines, the sisters cook all the perishable food, attracting GNLF boys who slyly demand to sleep on their floor. Out of fear, Noni and Lola allow the boys to sleep on their floor and say nothing when they steal food and supplies. Later, GNLF supporters build huts on Mon Ami property, claiming the estate is free land. When the sisters threaten to call the police, the boys reply nonchalantly.
Devoid of options, Lola visits Pradhan, leader of the Kalimpong Gorkhas, and pleads with him to remove his people from her land. Pradhan openly mocks and threatens Lola, who returns to Mon Ami shaken and humiliated. She remembers her late husband, Joydeep, and accuses him of putting her in a dangerous situation. Noni tries to comfort Lola, reminding her that, though the GNLF are using immoral tactics, they resist legitimate oppression. Lola curses Noni, telling her to join the GNLF and go to hell.
Sai ventures to the poor part of Kalimpong to find Gyan, who has been avoiding her since the robbery. She is surprised by his run-down house and realizes his family has invested all their money and energy in Gyan. Gyan criticizes Sai, who asks him to tell the GNLF to allow Father Booty to return home. As Gyan and Sai quarrel, accusing each other of living up to cruel stereotypes, Sai realizes Gyan sent the robbers to Cho Oyo. She then physically attacks Gyan and threatens to report him to the police. When Sai returns to Cho Oyo, the wife of the tortured drunk accused of robbing Cho Oyo pleads with Judge Patel for financial help now that her husband cannot work. Judge Patel refuses, as he believes offering charity can make a wealthy person responsible for a poor one.
The GNLF plans a gathering to burn the Indo-Nepal treaty and requires one representative from each household to be present. To Gyan's immense relief, his grandmother assumes the role of matriarch and forbids him from participating. He lies to his friends that he has food poisoning. The judge insists that the cook attend the rally in his place. While the cook is at the treaty-burning, an anonymous group begins pelting the crowd with stones, inciting a lethal riot. The cook barely escapes, traumatized after witnessing beheadings and dismemberment. Conditions in Kalimpong worsen, and the drunk's wife and her father-in-law return to beg the Judge for help, and he denies them again. Desperate, they decide to steal Mutt and sell her.
Biju returns home on a flight with multiple layovers. He is optimistic about the life that awaits him in Kalimpong and plans to open a taxi service and spend time with his father, oblivious to the dangers that await him.
Analysis
Biju's telephone conversation with the cook is rendered in all capital letters, signifying that the cook and Biju literally scream into the phone, and they metaphorically scream across the new divide in their relationship. Since Biju and the cook disguise their genuine feelings and fears, their spoken phrases are clipped and panicked, tonally expressing their mutual fear for the other's safety and their shared discomfort with technology. The text's excessive capitalization creates a sense of overwhelming discomfort and allows the reader to share in Biju's feeling that time is running out for him to return home.
While describing the worsening conditions in Kalimpong, the text relates a brief anecdote where boarding school children cook their own dinner. Left to their own devices, the children violently behead the chickens, screaming with amusement as they watch the decapitated birds run. This vignette is an allegory for the GNLF in Kalimpong. Isolated and oppressed, the young men, including Gyan and his peers, lash out with directionless violence. By assigning blame to their wealthy and non-Nepali neighbors, the GNLF dehumanizes their victims and enjoys their misery. The pervasive sense of panic and isolation established throughout the text create group dynamics that can compel people to acts of violence. The boarding school allegory recalls how Gyan immediately joined the Gorkha National Liberation Front and how the insurgents robbing Cho Oyo fed on one another's anger and posturing. The allegory also grimly foreshadows the burning of the Indo-Nepal treaty riot, where insurgents behead police, their decapitated bodies briefly mobile.
Noni and Lola grimly acknowledge that "the wealth that seemed to protect them like a blanket was the very thing that left them exposed." Lola and Noni forsook their dreams and desires to maintain a peaceful, stable existence at Mon Ami. However, their separation from Kalimpong's injustices attracts GNLF members to their home. First, because the GNLF blames the wealthy for lingering socioeconomic inequities, and second, because Moni Ami, carefully designed to shield the sisters from the outside world, is perfectly suited for hiding fugitives.
While wandering through the poor part of Kalimpong searching for Gyan, Sai passes rows of abandoned churches of various denominations. This imagery highlights the predatory nature of missionaries in Kalimpong. Sai observes that the missionaries leave during political unrest to maintain their safety and return to convert a "weakened and desperate populace" easily. The grim imagery of deserted houses of worship recalls Sai's experiences in the convent school; the nuns, after shaming and disciplining Sai for years, gleefully abandon her after her parent's death. The text's discussion of missionary religions highlights the hypocrisy and folly of Christianity as a "civilizing" force and draws a transparent interconnection between Western colonialism and Christian hegemony, ideological forces that work in tandem.
Sai is shocked to discover Gyan lives in squalor; she doesn't believe his family home "matches" his dignified appearance and advanced education. Sai realizes that Gyan's family sacrificed their own needs to invest in Gyan so that he could one day provide for them. Gyan's family situation mirrors Judge Patel's upbringing; Jemu's parents doted on him while ignoring his sisters, hoping his success would elevate the family. However, Gyan and Judge Patel view their respective roles from opposite perspectives. Judge Patel rejects his family of origin and does everything in his power to physically and emotionally distance himself from his relatives. Gyan, however, pursues his career and political activities to create a better future for his loved ones. This ideological difference is best symbolized in Gyan's and Judge Patel's homes. Both abodes are dilapidated, but, while Cho Oyu is the rotting shell of a colonial Scotsman's dream, Gyan's house is "someone's precious home."
When Biju purchases his ticket home, he brings back "the best" of what America offers: branded clothing and entertainment technology. As he reminisces about home, Biju only recalls the nostalgic, pleasant memories of his childhood, ignoring the corruption and poverty that had "made him leave in the first place." Like Harish-Harry and the Hare Krishnas, Biju distills India and America into "fake versions" of themselves.
Amid their fight, Sai and Gyan accuse one another of embodying stereotypes. Sai accuses Gyan of being low-class and unintelligent, and Gyan accuses Sai of being materialistic and spoiled, though neither one believes their accusations. However, Sai and Gyan utilize "old hatreds" to immaturely work through their feelings of jealousy, abandonment, and insecurity. Similarly, Judge Patel took out his anger and hurt over being rejected by the English on his wife, Nimi, onto whom he projected his insecurities and self-hatred. These domestic disputes illustrate the cyclical nature of abuse.
The cook compares the violence he witnesses at the Indo-Nepal treaty burning to a public service announcement played before a film: a staged catastrophe that represents real dangers. This comparison invokes the motif of film and performance in a unique way. While the GNLF insurgents, Sai, and Gyan imagine themselves as action heroes and protagonists, the cook both witnesses and experiences the aftermath of their actions that blend performance with reality.
Throughout the text, Judge Patel works tirelessly to maintain a lifestyle he dislikes and a system that abuses him. Ironically, the judge's refusal to help the poor widow is his undoing. Judge Patel claims that offering charity would open him up to financial exploitation. However, because the judge refuses her, the widow decides to steal Mutt, the one creature Jude Patel loved uncomplicatedly.
