Summary
The second half of the first section begins with the narrator remembering his grandmother on her deathbed. He describes her as being bitter and full of rage, hurling insults at Ila. She is particularly angry that Ila chooses to live abroad, saying she is a traitor to her country and that her actions are a direct insult to people who shed blood to build their nation. She claims that Ila went solely for money. The narrator recalls this scene with "ruth," feeling a certain kind of tender pity for her. However, at the time, he found himself growing increasingly angry as she railed against Ila and then began to get angry at him for defending her. He decides to tell her why he thinks she chose not to live in India.
The narrator then flashes back to one of Ila's more recent visits to Calcutta. She arrives wearing blue jeans and says she wants to go out drinking. Robi is hesitant, but she insists, snapping at him for being unwilling to drink alcohol at home when he does so frequently at school. The narrator notes that Robi is often admired by his classmates, even though he shows no particular strength in sports or academics. The narrator comments that this admiration seemed to derive from Robi's immovable decisiveness. He mentions an instance in which Robi went against the entire student government. They wanted to defend a student who was expelled for asking a girl up to his room for tea. Robi disagreed, simply stating that he believed rules should be followed. They enter into a tropical-themed club and Ila wants to dance with a man in a group near their table. Robi says he will not allow her to do so, and she flies into a rage. She walks over to the man and Robi restrains her and hits the man. They leave the club and Ila screams at both the narrator and Robi, saying she is only able to be free in London and that moments like these demonstrate why she cannot stay in Calcutta.
The narrator offers this as an explanation for why she chose not to stay, but this only makes his grandmother angrier as she demands to know what Ila gave him to make him so protective of her. From here, he says, their relationship deteriorated and they do not speak again before her death. However, he notes that before she dies she writes a hateful letter to his school claiming that he has been to houses of prostitution and that he is a detriment to the reputation of the school. She says that he should be expelled. The narrator is able to convince the dean of his college that this is just the result of her deteriorating mental state and that he has never engaged in this behavior. On reflection, he realizes she wrote this letter the day before her death. Additionally, he is even more shocked because he has no idea how she knew he did actually visit those places.
The narrator then reflects on one of his visits to London, remembering meeting Ila's housemates, as well as a trip to some Bangladeshi shops in a small neighborhood that Ila mentions. He leaps back in time once again, recalling Tresawsen's final moments, as he saves Francesca from a falling beam during a bombing raid. The beam falls on him, killing him instantly. While the narrator finds this scene to be poignant, Ila is more dismissive. She then states, more broadly, that Europe will always be the center of history and that places like Calcutta remain on the outskirts of important events. She says that Tresawsen's "meaningless" death was made inherently more significant because it occurred in England and not India. The narrator takes issue with this point of view and gets angry at her elitism.
Nick, uninterested in their disagreement, suggests that they go somewhere else. They visit a travel agency, where the man working the desk is harsh with them. They leave abruptly and the narrator becomes irritated with Nick's constant speculation about the future of business. The narrator says that maybe he should focus on finding a job before searching out the "futures" industry. Nick also offers a suspicious explanation of why he left his previous job in Kuwait, making cursory criticisms of the management. Ila tells the narrator he is being rude and that she may not want to see him again anytime soon.
The narrator says that the next time he saw Ila was at a Christmas eve dinner with Nick, May, and Mrs. Price. Ila says she found a job with a children's fund. Nick makes more comments about his old job, complaining about how it was easier to be successful in business during his grandfather's lifetime. In a surprising turn of events, May undercuts him, saying that he was asked to leave that job because of the embezzlement charges that were leveled against him. Nick becomes irate, insults May, and storms out. They finish dinner awkwardly, and May convinces Ila and the narrator to spend the night at their house, making up camp beds for them in the cellar.
As they get ready for bed, Ila undresses in front of the narrator and he unwittingly reveals his feelings for her with his facial expression. She expresses sympathy and says she would have acted differently had she known. She comforts him and apologizes, but then leaves the room to be with Nick. In despair, the narrator says that at that moment some part of his humanity faded and he became only a "chronicle" of events.
Analysis
A significant aspect of this part of the book is how memory is reshaped by new information. In the section where he describes his grandmother dying, he contrasts the anger he felt in the moment, with the understanding he develops later. At the time, he is upset by the way his grandmother harshly rebukes Ila. He finds her intense rage disturbing and assumes that her fixation on Ila is primarily caused by her declining physical and mental health. What he realizes later is that she resents the fact that Ila can choose to leave behind India, and their family trauma, while she no longer has this option. This observation gains more poignancy later in the novel when the reader learns about the circumstances of Tridib's death. She not only views Ila as selfish, but also feels jealous of her ability to escape the weight of their collective history. The narrator uses this lens to effectively contrast his feelings in the moment with his subsequent realizations. In turn, he comes to see his grandmother in a softer light, even after all of the terrible things she said and did to him at the end of her life.
Nationalism also plays a major role in the narrator's depiction of his grandmother. At the end of her life, she is portrayed as being singularly focused on national pride. Where before she showed a more balanced sense of dedication to India, here she is shown describing her feelings in overwhelming and violent language. In contrast to her earlier displays of patience, she is now full of intense rage. The narrator seems to suggest that her outlook has profoundly altered her sense of self, taking away almost all of the aspects of her personality that existed before. The reader comes to understand this part of her character in greater detail later in the book.
Another theme that features prominently in this section is history. In London, the narrator has a lengthy and heated exchange with Ila about where historical events take place. Ila thinks that all consequential movements are based in Europe. She says that while local conflicts, famines, and riots occur in their home country, the events of actual importance happen in places like England. The narrator strongly disagrees with her and finds her stance to be both elitist and clearly incorrect. Similarly, Nick complains bitterly that his job in Kuwait had nothing to offer him and that both the country and his colleagues were holding him back. Both Nick and Ila express a belief that England is a center of world events and that colonial nations function only as destinations for travel or business opportunities. The narrator, without stating it outright, suggests the narrowness of this point of view. He shows how small instances intertwine to have a lasting effect on both historical events and people's personal lives, regardless of where they take place. In the narrator's view, there is no center of history; hugely influential moments happen everywhere, without warning.
Family also appears as a major part of this section, as the speaker highlights the tensions between his different relatives. In the club scene, the narrator shows the contrast between Robi and Ila's perspectives on traditionalism. Robi's firm stance on not drinking in Calcutta shows that he separates his life abroad and at home. He believes in upholding the rules of propriety as they relate to his family and country of origin, but does not extend that to his time at school. On the other hand, Ila states that she feels she should be able to be the same person regardless of where she is. She demonstrates this by dressing in blue jeans and wanting to go drinking and dancing. She finds the inconsistency of Robi's choices to be hypocritical and pushes back on his criticisms. The scene ends with Robi forcing her out of the club and her screaming at him and the narrator about how she cannot be free in India. This moment showcases the familial disagreements that arise as a result of different perspectives on the traditions and customs of their upbringing.
Lastly, the end of this part of the novel revisits the theme of love and also reveals why the narrator is telling this story. In the final scene of the section, the narrator sees Ila undress, and she notices something in the way that he looks at her. She realizes that he has been in love with her. She comforts him and apologizes, saying she would not have acted in the same way that night had she known. She then leaves him for the night to be with Nick. He says that at that moment, some part of his life as a person ended and he became a chronicler of events. What he reveals in this passage is that his reason for remembering these events is rooted in his desire to relive the past and mull over the significance of memories he didn't fully understand when they were happening. It also works well to bookend the section. He is revealing his reasons for leaving home in the section titled "Going Away" and then will proceed to fully explain his past in the section titled "Coming Home."
