In Custody

How is Siddiqui, the head of the Urdu Department, symbolic of past grandeur in In Custody?

How is Siddiqui, the head of the Urdu Department, symbolic of past grandeur in In Custody?

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The head of the Urdu department at the college where Deven teaches, Siddiqui is a slim, refined bachelor who lives in his family's ancestral home, a sprawling but decrepit manor. He lioves in the crumbling grandeur of the past. He often pretends that the past is still the present. He loves songs, dance, drink, and gambling; at one point, Deven marvels that off-campus, he is a "sybarite" (136). He is initially supportive of Deven's project, but he grows impatient with Deven's problems and failures and tries to extricate himself.