Summary
Chapter 2 starts with Lenny describing her mother and father in bed. Father buries his head in the quilt and Mother fusses over him, worrying that he will suffocate. The two joke around affectionately. Lenny is happy to see them teasing each other and decides that she is lucky to have had polio since infancy since she can be in their bed in the middle of the night and watch them cuddle.
Mother is woken up in the middle of the night after something happens to the neighbor girl Papoo, daughter of Lenny’s family’s sweeper Moti and his wife Muccho. Muccho has beaten Papoo again and the right side of her face is bruised. She is taken to the hospital but in a few days is “sprightly, defiant, and devilish” once again.
The next scene begins in Colonel Barucha’s consulting room. Lenny has a cold so she is wearing multiple pullovers, a shawl, and a quilt. The Colonel is seeing another patient at first, an emaciated and coughing infant who is the child of a Muslim family. The Colonel asks why the family did not bring the child in earlier and the husband says that his wife did not tell him to. Colonel Barucha responds, “Are you a father or a barber? And you all want Pakistan! How will you govern a country when you don’t know what goes on in your own house.”
Next up is Lenny, who thought she was coming in for her cold but is really there to have her cast removed. She is in shock and upset. She screams out because she is “unable to bear the thought of an able-bodied future.” She wonders what will happen to her leg after the cast is off. The whole process has been suspenseful for her. However, this uncertainty is “preferable to the certainty of an altered, laborious and loveless life.” Her father tries to bribe her obedience with a ten-rupee note, but Lenny doesn’t fall for it.
Lenny is relieved when the cast is off. Her leg looks dead, thin, and discolored. However, her foot and ankle are now at a better angle, though her heel still does not quite land on the floor. Lenny decides that is okay because she will have to keep wearing calipers. Father asks what will happen with her schooling now. Colonel Barucha says that there is no need for the pressure of formal education. Lenny will not need to study because she will marry and have children. Mother feels guilty, saying that this happened to Lenny’s health because she let ayahs (nannies) watch her.
Colonel Barucha then gets into political topics. Referring to Lenny’s illness, he says: “If anyone’s to blame, blame the British! There was no polio in India till they brought it here!” Lenny worries that saying things like this is “insurgence.” She notes that there are only 200 Parsees in Lahore and 120,000 in the world. The Colonel is the president of this small community whose minority position has taught them to be “careful to adopt a discreet and politically naive profile.” Thinking about the Colonel’s words, Lenny thinks, “The goddamn English.” This is her first engagement with politics. In her narration, Lenny then makes a statement alluding to what will happen next historically: “the Quit-India sentiment that has fired the imagination of a subject people and will soon sweep way the Raj!”
Analysis
The beginning of the chapter continues the theme of sexuality. Though only a child, Lenny is interested in the world of adult sexuality. She gets satisfaction from watching her mother and father cuddle and flirt in bed. When describing her mother getting out of bed, she notes that “her calves gleam creamily.” As a narrator, Lenny is attentive to sensuality, even when describing her own family.
At the doctor's, it is clear that Lenny has a complicated relationship to her polio. She is scared and in pain and wants to be healed. At the same time, her disease is important to her because it makes her stand out from other people. After her cast is off she notes, “My leg looks functional but it remains gratifyingly abnormal—and far from banal!” She does not want to be boring like other people and is happy that she is still different.
Chapter 2 also has political undertones. Lenny describes the precarious position of the Parsee community and the way they try not to rock the boat in order to protect themselves. At the same time, there are already tensions. This is visible from the way Colonel Barucha treats the Muslim couple who bring in their sick child. Barucha judges them to be backward and politically immature, saying that if they cannot even take care of their child how can they say they want to rule an independent Pakistan. Lenny also alludes to the Quit-India movement started by Mahatma Gandhi in 1942. This was a movement of civil disobedience against the British Raj (British rule over India). Eventually, Gandhi, Indian independence activist Jawaharlal Nehru, and thousands of supporters would be arrested and imprisoned. It was dangerous to oppose the British, as Lenny’s fear of Barucha’s more political statements shows.
