Summary
Chapter 5
The next morning (the morning after Hari leaves), the village gathers to watch the launch of Biju’s new boat. Biju’s wife has made a banner, and Biju sits and watches over the scene with pride. Biju’s wife and daughter pass around sweets, and his wife breaks a coconut on the prow of the boat.
Men lift the boat onto oiled tree trunks, but they lose control of the boat, which is not held back by any restraints, and run for their lives as it topples over onto its side. Biju is angry and yells at the village men who had been trying to move the boat while the onlookers laugh. He asks where his Alibagh workers are, and a young boy says they have gone to Rewas with Adarkar to petition the Bombay government. Biju yells at them that they know nothing about fishing.
The boys retort that they “know better” than fishing, and that they will get jobs in the factory while Biju catches “a few stinking fish.” Biju starts cursing at them and they laugh and dodge him.
One boy wonders where Hari is. Has he gone to Bombay? Another boy says Hari would be stupid to do that. The villagers drift away eventually. They must wait for the tide to rise to lift the fallen boat.
The next day, the tide does not come up high enough to lift the boat. The following day it doesn’t either, and it takes many days of hard effort before finally in the dark of night the boat is put out to sea with no crowd to watch its launch.
The narrator tells us that by then, Hari was so far away from Thul that he had completely forgotten about Jal Pari, Biju’s boat.
Chapter 6
Meanwhile, Hari had been hoping to catch a bus to Rewas, but he stands by the Thul bus stop for an hour in the night and no buses come. Finally, a bull-drawn cart comes along and Hari asks for a lift; the driver obliges. The cart is totally bare and Hari spends an uncomfortable night being jostled around the rough cart, getting sore from the hard wood.
Hari reaches Rewas at dawn, and tries to pay the driver, but the man waves his money away, saying that he was going to Rewas anyways to pick up fertilizer (Hari is surprised to hear the word again). The driver tells Hari that soon everything will be made in a factory, and nothing produced by hand: no more spinning yarn, no more grinding wheat at home. Everything will be bought in shops. The man says that nothing is enough because the planet’s population is growing too large, so there is not enough to go around, which is why big factories have to be made in a desperate attempt to change that. Hari is surprised to find the pier at Rewas teeming with people; he had not thought so many people were heading to Bombay.
He had thought he was being adventurous, but now he sees that there are all sorts of men and boys going, and he feels a little bit less special and brave. He is just one of many. Adarkar is at the piers as well, and Hari goes along the pier following the crowd until men lift him and put him in a boat. The sun has risen by this time and lights up the water in shades of purple and green and blue. The boats set out like dolphins over the waves. From Rewas to Bombay is fourteen kilometers, and the men and boys sing as they sail. The vibe is more of a holiday than a protest, and Adarkar keeps shouting to remind people why they are going to Bombay. Eventually, he’s hot and tired, and the other men tell him to sit down and save his strength for the protest. They pass him tea and slices of lime.
Hari is the only person from his village in the boat, and he sits at the bottom where no one notices him. He wonders if he has done the right thing, but he knows he can’t turn back now. He will have to get a job and work and live in Bombay. A man eventually sees him and asks whose son he is; he notices Hari has no food and gives him a chapati, which Hari takes gratefully even though his mouth is almost too dry to eat it.
When Hari finally sees Bombay, he is awestruck. He wants to stand and stare at it, but everyone is pushing out of the boats, so the crowd moves him along. Everyone is in a hurry and is rushing to where they are going, and through the people Hari sees the bustle of the port, of the steamships and the docks and cranes that are putting goods on board. There are new smells everywhere, and new voices and languages as well.
Hari and the other men who had come on the boat exit the port gate and go out onto the street, which is packed with “terrifying” traffic. Hari has never seen many cars at once because in Thul (and even in Alibagh) there are mostly bicycles and trucks and rickshaw-drivers. The vehicles are honking and speeding by and Hari clutches the arm of the man next to him, who turns out to be from his village. This man’s name is Mahe, and he tells Hari not to stop, because they must hurry to the Kala Ghoda, the Black Horse. They begin to dodge the traffic and almost get hit by a bus, whose driver yells out the window at them as they stand transfixed.
A policeman comes and also begins yelling at them, asking them if they have never seen a streetlight. He mocks them, calling them “pumpkinheads,” much like the factory man from Bombay in Thul. The bus driver suggests fiercely that the policeman should send Mahe and Hari back to Thul to keep them off the streets of Bombay. The policeman laughs; Mahe tells him that they are from Alibagh, and that they have come to speak to the Chief Minister. The policeman taunts them, saying to go ahead because the Minister is waiting for them with tea, garlands, and sweets.
Hari and his companions continue, offended at the rudeness of the Bombay people. They hear many more jeers as they walk to the Black Horse. Hari stares at the tall buildings and the sea of people around him, and wonders what the Black Horse is, thinking that it might literally be a giant horse. He looks around eagerly, hoping to spot it. The businesspeople that they pass by seem to be irritated that there is yet another procession in Bombay. Much to Hari’s surprise, it seems like there are many protests going on in the city, including an all-female one. The women are banging pots and pans and demanding fair prices for oil, rice, and sugar. The women cry out “Jail!” and then rush forward, led by a grandmotherly old lady. This shocks Hari; the Alibagh crowd had not even considered bringing their women and girls, thinking that they would only be a liability and a nuisance. He wonders what Lila and his mother would think of this all-female protest.
The policemen seem very used to keeping protests controlled. They force the men to walk around in a large circle; they are led to a central square. There is an empty pedestal in the square, which is the “Black Horse”; apparently, there was once a black statue of a British leader on a horse upon the pedestal, but the people of Bombay removed it after the British left India because they did not want to laud a foreign ruler in their newly independent nation. The villagers gather around the pedestal, and a strange man, old and thin, climbs to the top of it and begins to speak into a megaphone, though Hari cannot hear him well because of the roar of the traffic.
The man, who is named Sayyid Ali and is not a politician, begins to tell the listening villagers that he finds their way of life and their land valuable, and that it must be protected. Hari thinks the man must be a city man (he’s dressed very well and looks clean and educated), and wonders why the man cares so much about their cause. The man continues. He talks about the environmental concerns of the Thul-Vaishet fertilizer factory, and talks about its impact on Bombay, citing a case in Japan where organic mercury pumped into the sea ended up poisoning nearby people who ate the fish from the area. The man says that there is no more room in Bombay for new workers, and questions the motives of the villagers who want to live in Bombay. The lifestyle of unemployed and labor-working people is very low. Hari feels as if the man is speaking directly to him.
Sayyid Ali leaves the podium and a new man comes up. He discusses the Alibagh geomagnetic observatory, which will be threatened by the new factory. Established in 1841, it was moved to Alibagh in 1904, and the new factory will bring large masses of iron that will change the magnetic observations. This man does not have the same effect on the crowd that Ali does, and the crowd cheers when their own leader Adarkar comes to the podium. He repeats the reasons they rallied around: the people of Alibagh do not want money in return for their land. The crowd cheers again, and the people start to dissipate.
Hari isn’t sure what to do next. He hears a voice shouting that only five people will be going on to Mantralaya with the group’s petition, and everyone else should return to the docks. Hari feels as if he belongs nowhere, as if he has been left behind. He is now alone in Bombay.
Back in Thul, Lila and the girls wait for Hari to return, but he does not. Lila wakes to the bright morning light, and sees that their mother is ill with fever once more. She sends Bela and Kamal to buy ice and to inquire after Hari in town. Lila’s friend Mina tells them that the men of the village have set out to Bombay, but the girls don’t believe that Hari went with them.
They return home to find Lila burying Pinto in a homemade grave, and the three girls cry before Bela breaks the news to Lila: Hari has gone to Bombay with the other men. Lila doesn’t understand. Hari couldn’t have been angry and upset enough to run away, could he have? She decides they must manage by themselves. She will take their mother to Alibagh herself, and find her a doctor and medicine. As Lila thinks this, the girls hear the sound of tires and a car motor—the de Silvas have arrived from Bombay.
Chapter 7
Hari wanders around the Black Horse, not sure where else to go. He becomes very thirsty and sees a man with a wheelbarrow full of coconuts. Hari is used to picking coconuts, not buying them, and is shocked at their high price (two rupees). The man comments that Hari looks hungry and thirsty, and finds him a smaller, cheaper coconut. Hari tries to explain the Thul situation to the coconut man, but the man just lights a cigarette. He tells Hari that the government has only a mouth, not eyes or ears: a mouth that it eats with, feasting on taxes, the poor, and the land itself. Don’t ask it for anything, and be an independent man, he advises the listening Hari, who thinks that the coconut man seems very wise. But the man turns to help new customers, and Hari walks away.
A beggar calls after him and tells him not to trust Billu, the coconut man, because he uses his coconut knife at night to murder people as a hired assassin. Hari is startled, but the beggar says that the “people of the pavements” live this way: with a safe job during the day and a lucrative, immoral one at night. He offers to teach Hari some tips for this lifestyle for a small fee, but Hari refuses and moves on. He begins to feel afraid, and leaves the square via a side street. He can smell the ocean, and suddenly feels a wave of homesickness; he emerges from the side road onto a beautiful seaside boulevard.
The beach itself looks like a fairground, with vendors and toys and food everywhere. Hari remembers that he has the piece of paper with the de Silvas' address on it and decides to pursue the job offer that Mr. de Silva had offered him. He asks a shaved-ice seller where the address is, and the man laughs, saying Hari must be a prince in disguise, but points him towards the right direction nevertheless.
It is evening and the sun is setting, but it’s not really dark because of all the lights from the building. The building that the de Silvas live in is called Seabird, and Hari is surprised to find it very crowded. (It is a luxury apartment building, not a house in which the de Silvas lived alone, as Hari had thought it would be.)
Hari is shoved into the elevator with many other people. He finds the apartment of the de Silvas and begins banging on the door loudly. After a while, the bellboy comes and yells at him to stop, and points out the doorbell to him. The bellboy asks what Hari is doing, and doesn’t believe that he has a reason to see the Sahib. The bellboy informs Hari that the de Silvas have gone back to Thul for their summer vacation, and won’t be back for a month, and that the Sahib doesn’t need any more servants so Hari had better go look somewhere else.
Hari takes the elevator back down to the lobby, feeling lost. The door watchman tells him that he can take Hari to a friend of his who can give Hari a meal and perhaps a place to stay for the night. Hari feels grateful for his kindness. This watchman is named Hira Lal, and he’s worked at Seabird for twelve years. His friend’s name is Jagu, and Jagu agrees to give Hari a cheap meal and a place to sleep. Jagu is dressed in dirty clothes and works at a cheap restaurant; he barely gives Hari a second look as he ladles out bowls of lentils to his customers. Exhausted, Hari eats and falls asleep at once on a hard bench.
Analysis
The protest in Bombay provides more insights into the troubles that the factory will putatively bring. Sayyid Ali, who will return at the end of the novel, says the fertilizer factory is too close to Bombay and cries out, “As it is, Bombay is heavily industrialized, crowded, and polluted. How much more pollution can we stand?” (121). Additionally, he tells the people that they will probably think they will have to move to Bombay to find work, and admonishes them to “look around the city now that you are here: is there room for twenty to fifty thousand more people? Do you think there can be enough jobs here, or houses? See how the poor and unemployed live here” (121-122).
The next speaker has another perspective, which is that of the “world-renowned Alibagh geomagnetic observatory” (123). Desai does a good job of extending sympathy to both the scientists, whose work is important on a grand scale, and the poor protestors, who naturally see their ability to get food and jobs as more important than some confusing science project.
At the protest, Hari also sees how insignificant he really is. Of course he’s not one of the people going to speak to the Chief Minister, and he has no other friends in Bombay. His attempt to reach out to the de Silvas fails, and he comes to the recognition that he is “deserted and friendless…he knew he did not really belong to the march, he had no fields or fishing boats to fight for…He belonged to no one, nowhere. The others had left him behind. He was alone in Bombay” (126-127).
Hari’s new settings contrast greatly with his home in Thul. The dirt and soot that cover the eating house are physical reminders of the filth and business that characterize life in Bombay. The two boys that work alongside Hari appear like sad ghosts, foreshadowing what might happen to Hari himself if he stays for too long. Hari’s unwillingness to be seen as “just another orphan” like the boys shows a desire to keep his roots and to remain his talkative, inquisitive self, and not to let the drudgery of his new job weigh him down.
The dark and dismal setting is also fitting with the heavy work that Hari and the boys are doing. They are getting paid just one rupee a day, which (as we might remember from the last chapter) is not even enough to buy a coconut on the street. Hari might be grateful for this job, but some might call this “indentured servitude.” Hari’s situation provides some insights into the extreme poverty in India, even as the country’s economy was growing.
