Summary
Chapter 4 begins with a long description of Lenny’s brother Adi. It is as if he just came into her awareness and was not there before. He is four years old, a year and a month younger than Lenny. He is often aloof, private with his thoughts and interests. Lenny is curious about him, but he is not very aware of her. He only looks at her for a few seconds at a time. He’s always appearing and vanishing, and is as beautiful as if “formed of gold mercury.” There is something feminine about this appearance, so Lenny likes calling him "Sissy." One morning, she and Cousin spot Adi sleeping. His lips are so lush that they think he has put on lipstick. He denies this and when they wipe his lips they realize it’s true: his lips are naturally this color. Cousin says that Adi should have been born a girl. He is also pale-skinned and gets compared to an Englishman’s song. When Ayah takes him to play in Lawrence Gardens, he is able to cross the space the separates native babies and English babies. He goes and plays with the white boys and girls there, which Ayah watches with pride.
At night, Lenny and Adi sleep in cots. She loves snuggling under a heavy quilt on a cold night and going over the experiences of the day in her head. But that is only if the nightmares do not come, like the roaring lion in the zoo. Then the hungry lion roams across the city in her dream, comes to her bedroom, and attacks her. Even if she does not see the lion in her dream, she says, “I awake every morning to the lion’s roar. He sets about it at the crack of dawn, blighting my dreams.”
In wintertime, Ice-candy-man goes from selling popsicles to being a birdman. He sets sparrows and parrots free for money. To get customers, he pretends to get angry at the birds for squawking and takes out a razor, threatening to cut their throats. The “tenderhearted Englishwomen” fall for this and try to save the birds from him.
Sometimes after making sales like this, Ice-candy-man takes out Ayah, Lenny, and Adi for lunch. They go to a favorite restaurant where the proprietor is a wrestler. They eat rice and vegetable curry while Ice-candy-man ogles Ayah. He plays footsie with her, trying to get under her sari with his toes. After the meal, Ayah tries to get rid of him by saying that she has chores. He’s insistent and even says he will come to the house and help her. Mother would be angry, though, as he is a “shady, almost disreputable type” who stinks of cigarettes. He tries to convince Ayah to go to the cinema. She says she can’t but agrees to talk for 10 more minutes in the grass near the servants’ quarters.
Ice-candy-man begins sharing news and gossip. A Muslim, he reads the newspapers in the Urdu language. He describes the V-bomb being developed by the Germans to destroy the British during World War II. He then talks about Subhas Chandra Bose, a Hindu nationalist who joined the Japanese side of the war while in Burma, hoping that the Japanese would help liberate India. Then Ice-candy-man says, “If we want India back we must take pride in our customs, our clothes, our languages…” He thinks Indians should not speak English. All of these comments are based on what he reads, Lenny thinks. He’s always quoting Indian independence figures like Gandhi, Nehru, and Jinnah. Lenny is bored of this talk and does not understand why people around her are constantly discussing people they have never met.
Ice-candy-man asks Ayah if she is from Punjab. If she is, he asks, why doesn’t she dress like people from there? Ayah says that if she dressed like a Punjabi she would get half of the salary of the maids from Goan (many of them Christian) and Hindus who wear saris.
Again Ice-candy-man tries to stick his toe under Ayah’s sari. She threatens to have the Germans “V-bomb you into ash.” He tries to get her to forgive him, putting his body in the position of “the cock,” a way of punishing children in lower-class schools. Everyone laughs but Adi, who Ice-candy-man dangles from his arms. He threatens to drop Adi unless Ayah goes to the cinema with him later. She agrees and Adi is saved, but then Ayah attacks Ice-candy-man with a sandal until he runs away.
Analysis
The original title of Cracking India in England was Ice Candy Man. Though he is not as central a character as Lenny or Ayah, he is described at length in this chapter and later ones. He appears to be a lovable character but also something of a rascal, tricking both the English and Ayah in order to get what he wants. He is able to manipulate situations with ease. There is a dark side to him as well, as he is forceful and insistent when it comes to the advances he makes on Ayah. As the book continues, Ice-candy-man’s dark side will become more apparent. He is willing even to use violence to get close to Ayah. His questions about why Ayah does not dress like a Punjabi subtly shows the religious differences between them: he is Muslim and she is Hindu. Yet Ayah does not seem particularly concerned about asserting her religious identity. She is more practical and focused on what will help her get ahead rather than being a “pure” Hindu.
In this chapter, Lenny also continues to describe her dreams and nightmares. These foreshadow the violence of Partition and show that there is an undercurrent of dread and uncertainty in her unconscious. The symbol of the lion shows that violence can break out at any moment and attack her even in the safest of domestic spaces, like her bedroom.
Lenny also describes her brother. There is something beautiful and feminine about him. He is aloof and very different in personality from Lenny, who loves talking and is curious about everyone around her.
