Summary
Chapter 8
Hari had been so tired the night before that he hadn’t had a chance to get to know his surroundings. He finds himself at the Sri Krishna Eating House, the meanest and shabbiest place he has ever seen; even the eating houses in Thul are nicer. There are no decorations at all, or perhaps they’ve been buried under the layers of soot and dirt in the restaurant. It is the cheapest place in all of Bombay, and attracts a crew of laborers and homeless people who need cheap, filling food. Cart-workers, coal-draggers, and all sorts of workers come every day, all day, so Jagu and his staff barely have time to rest.
Jagu has two boys who help him roll out the chapati dough in the kitchen and bake them. Jagu tells Hari that he can work in the kitchen for one rupee a day plus meals, which Hari agrees to; Jagu tells him to get started scrubbing pots and then he can knead the dough and roll out the chapati. There aren’t any sponges so Hari must scrub with ashes and old coconut husks. He helps the other two boys roll out the dough, which is hard and strenuous work. He tries to speak to them, but they speak Tamil, a language he doesn’t know; they don’t know Hindi or Marathi, Hari’s own languages, so eventually they lapse into silence, just working sadly and silently. No one seems to have the strength to talk because there is so much work to be done, and Hari too falls silent.
Hari would have stayed silent if he hadn’t had a friendly neighbor, an old man who runs a watch store called Ding Dong Watchworks. The man looks like Sayyid Ali, and Hari feels as though he has met another man whom he could trust. The man asks if Hari is new to the city, and Hari replies that he is from Thul.
The man says that lots of people come to Jagu for help, and although Jagu is a silent man, he is a good man. The two boys that work for him are orphans after their parents died in a railway accident; they were living on the railway tracks, as many poor people do, and a train ran them over as they were crossing the tracks to fetch water. Jagu found the boys and offered them a place to stay. This story makes Hari feel uncomfortable, as he does not want to be seen as just another one of Jagu’s orphans; after all, he has parents.
Thinking of his family, he asks where he can purchase a postcard. The man lends Hari some money to buy one, and lends him a pen as well. Hari writes the following: “Dear Mother, I am in Bombay. I have a job. I will bring you my earnings. I hope you are well. I am well. Remember me to my sisters.” He writes his name but not a return address, and sends the postcard, feeling good because it was the right thing to do, but frightened because it means he is embarking on this new mission with no turning back.
Back in Thul, Bela and Kamal run to watch the de Silvas come out of their car. The cook asks where Hari is because they need help with their bags; Bela and Kamal run to help instead. Lila helps clean the de Silva house, sweeping away sand and spiderwebs. The cook is disgruntled because he does not know how he will manage the household now that the de Silvas have decided to stay in Thul for two weeks. Lila offers her help, and the cook accepts. Each day, she is to bring the family fresh fish and bread and then help peel vegetables and prepare meals.
The next day, Mr. de Silva prepares to drive to Alibagh to do some shopping and asks the cook for his grocery list so he can buy all the food at once. Hearing this, Lila darts out and begs Mr. de Silva to bring their mother to the Alibagh hospital, since he will be going there anyways. Mrs. de Silva overhears and asks why Lila hadn’t asked earlier—perhaps she could have brought medicine to help. Lila is grateful and explains how their mother is ill and getting more ill and weaker every day. “We will pay for the medicine,” Mr. de Silva says, and tells Lila to go fetch her mother.
Lila would be excited if she hadn’t been worried. Her mother stretches out on the back seat of the car and looks so weak that Lila is concerned she might die before they reach the hospital. Lila is so busy holding her mother’s head that she has no time to look out the window. When they reach the hospital, Lila has no idea what to do, but luckily Mr. de Silva does, telling them to wait while he gets a nurse and a stretcher. Two men come and lift Lila’s mother onto it, and Lila runs after them with a little bundle of her mother’s belongings. Mr. de Silva goes to speak to a doctor; one of the nurses sees Lila’s face and reassures her that her mother will be alright, as the hospital has excellent doctors. The doctor says that the mother should stay at the hospital because she is emaciated. Lila doesn’t argue, but weeps in the car all the way back home.
That night, Lila’s father asks where his wife is. Lila can’t meet his eyes when she tells him that she has taken her mother to the hospital in Alibagh. Lila’s father gets angry, demanding why Lila did not ask him. She timidly tells him that he had been asleep. Lila’s father roars and shouts that he will go to Alibagh to find her because she can’t be left alone, and ends his diatribe by calling Lila a “stupid girl.”
Lila is afraid he will go to the hospital and make a drunken scene, and assures him the doctors will watch over her mother. Her father yells that she can’t handle anything, and kicks over a pot, stamping on its broken shards. He demands Lila cook food right then and there so he can bring it to her mother. Lila begins to cry, saying that it’s too late to cook, but she gathers up the small amount of food in the house into a bundle and gives it to her father, who begins to storm off into the night.
Lila remembers the Khanekar brothers and calls out after her father asking what she should do if they come around again looking for money. Her father shouts back to tell them to get off his land. In a trembling voice, Lila reminds him that the brothers killed Pinto because her father owed them money for toddy, but her father interrupts her and shouts that they’ve lied and he owes them nothing. Then he says he will go by the Khanekar house and pay the brothers what he has, and he will tell Hira-bai to look after the girls while he is gone. Lila lets him go, feeling sure that the brothers will not be at home but rather in the toddy-shop, and that her father will soon join them there.
However, Lila’s father does not return the next day, or the day after that. When Lila goes back to the hospital to see her mother’s reports, she is frightened to see her father at the ward. He doesn’t smell of toddy anymore and seems old and grey and bent. Her mother is in bed, washed and clean.
The doctor gives the reports to Mr. de Silva and he explains them to Lila while they are in the car driving home. Her mother has been suffering from severe anemia and a slight case of TB (tuberculosis). Her father will stay at the hospital to look after her mother. The doctors have been treating her mother with a balanced diet and injections.
Mr. de Silva notices that Lila looks worried, and reassures her, saying that he has given extra money to her father for food because he is staying, and that the de Silva family is paying for their medicine. The hospital itself is free. He will also pay Lila and her sisters for their work around the house so Lila can earn money while her parents are gone.
Lila mumbles that the de Silvas will be gone soon, and what will they do then? But Mr. de Silva says that a new guest is coming to live at Mon Repos from Bombay, a friend of the family. He will be alone and will need someone to cook and sweep, and he will pay Lila a salary for her work over a few months. Lila is shocked because no one has ever stayed at Mon Repos for that long, and the monsoon will come; the new guest will apparently be studying the monsoon, and, according to Mr. de Silva, is a “strange one.” Mr. de Silva seems to think the problems of Lila’s family have been solved, and begins to whistle. Lila isn’t so sure, and thinks of Hari, her eyes filling with tears. As she arrives home, Bela and Kamal rush towards her with Hari’s postcard in their hands.
Chapter 9
Work is difficult; it is always hot and Hari is confined to the kitchen and front room day and night. He is to sleep on a hard bench, but he can never get comfortable. He wishes for the darkness and quiet of his village by the sea.
He nearly falls ill from the lack of sleep, but the watchmaker suggests he go sleep in the park where it is cooler. This is excellent advice and Hari is grateful. It is not perfect, but it is nice to have trees and pigeons and cooler air.
The park policeman does not want him sleeping there and is about to hit him with his nightstick when a passing old man chastises him for bullying the boy and tells him to go take care of the real riffraff. The policeman feels badly that he threatened a child and decides to go inspect the drunkards. After that, he always says hello to Hari and never bothers him.
During his mornings and evenings in the park, Hari sees the same people: an old man who feeds the pigeons, an old woman who feeds the ants, and schoolchildren. They make him think of his sisters and he wishes he would have given them his address so they could write. Jagu seems pleased with Hari. Hari listens to him sing a tune in a dialect Hari does not know, and Hari realizes that Jagu too is from a faraway village.
But Mr. Panwallah the watchmaker is the kindest and most helpful to Hari. He asks if Hari might like to learn about watches and become his apprentice. He can pay him a little and he might become a watchmaker one day. Hari is thrilled and incredulous that this man is offering employment to a village boy.
He accepts, but mumbles that his hands are dirty. Mr. Panwallah laughs and tells him just to wipe them off.
This becomes a source of joy and hope for Hari. Jagu has no problem letting him go there during his time off, and Mr. Panwallah is a good and complimentary teacher.
Back in Thul, the visitor arrives at Mon Repos while the family is preparing to depart. Mr. de Silva reassures Lila that her mother will be fine, and it is best to leave her in the hospital for the rest of the wet monsoon season. He will stop by on their way out and give her father a bit of funds for necessities. Mrs. de Silva calls out for her to look out for Sayyid Ali and gives her a few things to remember.
After the family is gone, an elderly man with a white beard and glasses comes outside. The girls notice him but he does not notice them. They whisper in wonderment that he seems to be studying birds.
The old man proves to be an easy person to keep house for. He is quiet and polite and rarely seems to interact with people. The girls do not mind his oddities, though the littler girls laugh a bit. One day he gives them money for sweets.
Lila is grateful to be earning money. She can stock the house with food, and she visits her mother in the hospital each week. Kamal wonders, though, if the visitor will leave during the monsoon season as most people do.
Analysis
We learn more about Hari’s personality from his interactions with these new people in Bombay. Hari is obviously desperate for human interaction, which is why he tries to engage the boys at work.
He is also clearly looking for a mentor figure, and has certain ideas of what this mentor should be like: he should be educated, wise, eloquent, and talented. The reader cannot help but wonder if these are qualities that Hari feels he is lacking and hopes to gain from this potential mentorship. That mentor finally shows up in the person of Mr. Panwallah, a kindly old watchmaker happy to take Hari on as an apprentice. It is unclear exactly what inures the boy to the old man, but we can guess that it is his evident ambition and desire to make something of his life.
We begin to see more character development in Lila’s father. He seems more aware of the fact that his actions and drinking habits are negatively impacting his family, and takes some responsibility for his actions by suggesting that he will go pay off some of his debt so that Lila and her sisters remain safe while he is away. In the hospital, he doesn't drink, which suggests that perhaps he is willing to get over this addiction that has brought so much pain to the family.
We also see how helpless Lila really is when it comes to her mother’s situation. She cannot do anything at the hospital without the help of the de Silvas. She has never interacted with medical professionals, and everything they say must be “translated” to her through Mr. de Silva, as she lacks the vocabulary and experience to understand their words. This is likely a major cause of Lila’s worries: because she cannot understand the doctors, she cannot feel completely assured that her mother will be well taken care of.
Similarly, Lila’s father demands that she cook food to bring to her mother; even the father is worried that the doctors might not be feeding their mother, or giving her the right food. As readers, we are familiar with hospitals and would never doubt that our loved ones would be fine if committed to an in-patient care unit; we know that hospitals provide adequate food, drink, and shelter for their patients. There is also a layer of irony here since the doctor tells Mr. de Silva (and Lila by extension) that Mother’s illness is mostly due to poor nutrition. Father is an example of how uneducated, unconnected citizens are not able to easily understand the offerings of modernity, especially modern medicine and nutrition.
