The Inheritance of Loss

The police search the area for GNLF boys, who flee and hide in the homes of wealthy people like Lola and Noni. Although rumored to be violent, most of the GNLF are young men for whom violence is a fantasy inspired by movies like Rambo.

Still, violence continues, and local murders escalate along with civil unrest. Trees are strung with amputated limbs, gruesome scenes play out on common streets, and a mutilated body is found in a sewage tank. Locals, although shaken, are lulled into boredom by their housebound existence.

Biju enters the Calcutta airport along with a wide range of Indian people coming from the West, from tech millionaires to hippies to taxi drivers. Two Indian American men, one an Ohioan and the other from South Dakota, strike up a conversation; the former says of India, “each time you come back you think something must have changed, but it’s always the same” (326).

Air France loses several bags and will compensate nonresidents but not Indians. Indian customers protest their prejudice against poor Indian nationals, but Air France stands firm. The rich nonresidents now compare all Indian goods and services to their more expensive equivalents in the West. They flash their foreign passports with pride for preferential treatment, and the agents who don’t play along are called jealous.

As the man from Ohio says goodbye to the South Dakotan, he ponders whether immigration is brave or cowardly. His father considers immigration an act of cowardice, for “fear marked the journey, not bravery; a cockroach desire to scuttle to where you never saw poverty, not really, never had to suffer a tug to your conscience” (329). He himself loves Ohio, “for there he had at last been able to acquire poise” (329). He assumes his father is jealous of his American life and possessions, but really his father did not think much of Ohio when he visited.

Biju emerges from the airport with his luggage and gazes on the crowds teeming even at 11 o’clock at night. He savors the familiarity of the “[s]weet drabness of home” (330) as the fear of being an immigrant fades away.

The judge prays for Mutt’s return, but he balks at his lapse in rational agnosticism and begins to taunt God instead. He wonders if Mutt’s disappearance is payback for past sins. He considers his rejection of his father and his wife Nimi years ago.

He recalls his years in Bonda and the occasion that led to his separation from his wife. A congresswoman, Mrs. Mohan, invited Nimi on a car trip, and the ordinarily reclusive woman agreed. They traveled to a train station and stood with thousands of onlookers at a scene Nimi did not comprehend. She ate lunch at an unfamiliar house afterward and returned home.

The district commissioner called the judge into his office and scolded him for allowing his wife to appear in support of Nehru, the man greeted by crowds at the train station. The judge protested that his wife would not attend such an event, but the commissioner insisted she did.

The judge confronted Mrs. Mohan, who claimed her invitation was innocent. The judge unleashed harsh words at Nimi when he returned home and asked her if she was stupid. Nimi answered, “You are the one who is stupid” (335), a rare act of defiance. The judge beat her relentlessly. The judge’s abuse continued over time no matter what Nimi said or did. He sent her back to her father’s house in Gujarat, telling Nimi, “If I don’t send you back [...] I will kill you” (336).

Nimi bore a child six months later (Sai’s mother). Nimi’s uncle, assuming she was sent back for her pregnancy, told the judge he would send her back to Bonda. The judge declined, and the uncle refused to house Nimi any longer. She moved in with her sister and her husband, who resented her for living off his lesser income.

The judge’s father begged him to take Nimi back to save the family from shame in their town. His father blamed sending the judge to England for his current behavior. He stayed with the judge for two days and refused to take the judge’s money when he offered.

The judge’s workload rose precipitously in the following years with the removal of the English in India and widespread unrest. He received a telegram that Nimi “caught fire over a stove” (338). He tried to justify this incident, but he knew Nimi’s brother-in-law committed the murder and paid off the police. He recalls his one pleasant memory of Nimi on the bicycle just days after their wedding. Sai’s arrival at Cho Oyu made the judge long to redeem himself after abandoning his family.

The judge, Sai, and the cook continue to search the hills for Mutt. Sai mourns Gyan, while the cook worries about his son, whose letters have stopped coming.