Summary
Imam Din is trying to stay on Ayah’s good side. He makes special foods to please her. In the kitchen, he’s also hard at work because Lenny’s parents are hosting a dinner party. They entertain guests often. Lenny and Adi have a fight over a chicken giblet, but they make peace quickly. They hide underneath the dinner table so they can hear the adults’ conversations. Rosy and Peter’s parents are there: the Sikh father and American mother. Mr. Singh is a bit vulgar, spitting and acting like a villager. Also, there is Mr. Rogers, Inspector General of Police, and Mrs. Rogers.
Lenny’s father tells a joke to entertain the visitors. A British soldier and a turbaned native are in a train compartment together. The Indian is drinking out of a bottle of scotch but doesn’t offer any to the soldier. When the Indian leaves, the soldier steals a swig. Later the soldier admits what he did, but the native says that it was his urine in the bottle. A doctor prescribed it as a cure for syphilis.
A political debate then ensues. Father mentions that there was no syphilis in India before the British brought it. Inspector General Rogers says “You won’t be able to blame everything on us for long, old chap.” What he means is that the British will probably leave soon, but Mr. Singh interprets it to mean that they will not allow them Home Rule. Mr. Rogers asks whether they’re up to ruling themselves and Mr. Singh points out that Sikh soldiers were recruited into WWII and helped the British win already. He tells Mr. Rogers that the British must leave India. Gandhi is on a fast and if he dies it will be blood on their hands. Mr. Rogers says he will celebrate but Mr. Singh threatens him with a “river of blood flow[ing] in our gutters.”
Now Rogers is angry too and the fight escalates. He says “If we quit India today, old chap, you’ll bloody fall at each other’s throats” and points out disagreements between the Muslims and Hindus. Singh accuses the British of “divide-and-rule monkey tricks” but when Rogers insults a Sikh leader, Singh threatens to stab him with a fork. The women successfully calm the two men and everyone sits back down. As Father tells another joke, the adults discover the two children under the table and they’re sent to bed.
The chapter then describes the Morris Minor, a famous early British car, that the family has at the house. It has an old-style engine and makes lots of noise. From there, Lenny describes her father. He’s a disciplined man who has exactly 20-minute-long naps after lunch. One Sunday in November, Lenny hears a noise from her parents’ room. They are joking and fighting. Mother wants to find something that Father has hid. She chases him across the bedroom and Lenny joins in. Eventually, Mother finds it in the dresser: money. She says that there are expenses for the children and the upcoming holidays. Father says she has taken too much money from the stack, but he’s not really upset.
Analysis
This chapter continues to show the happy home life of Lenny’s family. Her mother and father get along well. They tease and joke but they seem fundamentally happy. Lenny and her brother get into mischief sometimes, like hiding under the table, but no one gets truly angry with them. Also, with their purchase of a British car, it is also clear that the family is well-off financially. These details of a happy and peaceful home life are established to show the contrast with what will happen in later chapters as India is divided into two countries when the British leave.
As in the other chapters, historical events are moving quickly in the background. This is visible from the argument between Mr. Rogers, a British Inspector General of Police, and Mr. Singh, a Sikh man from Punjab. Singh wants Home-Rule and resents the British colonial government. Rogers argues that Indians will never be able to agree among themselves. On the one hand, there is Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru of the Indian National Congress. Then there is the All-India Muslim League, a party led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah that advocated for a separate Muslim-majority nation: Pakistan, which would include parts of Punjab province where Lenny’s family lives. Rogers tells Singh that Jinnah “has the backing of seventy million Indian Muslims” while the Hindus “won’t back down […] for an undivided India.” The result is that there is bound to be conflict. Then there are the Sikhs and the militant Akali movement that call for independence and change in their temple leadership. When Rogers calls them “maniacs,” Singh explodes in anger. Between all of these tensions, the Parsees, including Lenny’s family, are just trying to survive.
