The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny

Sunny Bhatia is the novel’s second protagonist. He is a young Indian journalist living in New York. His arc is defined by his growing insecurity towards his identity as an immigrant. Sunny often feels that he must betray other, more disenfranchised people of color to earn his identity as an American resident. Consequently, he never feels satisfied with the attainment of certain class markers, such as his home in a gentrified neighborhood and even his legal residency status. These achievements all strike him as empty, a feeling he cannot share with anyone but Sonia since she is the only person he knows who registers the emptiness of American individualism.

Sunny pursues American residency to maintain distance from his controlling mother, Babita. He fears living near Babita so much that it mitigates his choice to return to India to be with Sonia. Nevertheless, Sunny adopts some of Babita’s worst character traits, including her disdain for other Indians, during his stay in the West. The harder Sunny tries to distinguish himself from Babita, the more he demonstrates his own superiority complex and how easily he has absorbed his mother’s prejudices. These prejudices manifest in varying degrees, from his annoyance with Satya, who adopts Indian manners during their return trip home, to his attempts to impose his political awareness on Sonia and other tourists in Venice.

Sunny’s time in Mexico reveals the limits of his American aspirations. Thinking that Mexico will allow him to shed the guilt of his American privilege, he instead finds himself trying to fit into a community of North American expatriates. The September 11th attacks bring his tensions with American culture to a head, with Sunny realizing that he feels more at home in India after all. This realization, along with Satya’s advice to reconcile with Sonia, compel Sunny to abandon his American life, return to India, and resume his relationship with Sonia.

Babita Bhatia is one of the novel’s antagonists. Babita is Sunny’s covetous mother who values luxury and wealth above all things. She is reluctant to let go of what wealth she has, such as her share of the Panchsheel Park estate, unless it is a means of attaining something else, like the mansion in Goa or the funding for her travels west.

Babita’s backstory includes her marriage to Sunny’s principled father, Ratan, who is implied to have experienced a heart attack after learning that Babita desired Ratan’s father as well for his wealth. Babita promised God that she would love Ratan if he lived, emphasizing her transactional view towards human relationships. In the wake of Ratan’s death, Babita speaks to an idealized version of her husband, who indulges all her whims with his silence. At the same time, Babita is possessive towards Sunny, whom she views as her last defense against loneliness. Consequently, Babita opposes Sunny’s relationship with Sonia, framing her as someone unfit for Sunny.

Babita’s upper-class perceptions of the West cause her to feel repulsion towards other people of color, including Indians. She recalls the shock she felt upon realizing that most of the Indians she met in the United Kingdom were in the working class. She constantly views herself as being upper-class, even though her wealth is gradually diminished by her own misguided decisions, such as the sale of Panchsheel Park and the purchase of the Goa mansion. This brings her to a point of humility, where she has no one left to support her or indulge her thinking in Goa. Even when she begs God for mercy in Part 17, Chapter 63, she is struck with the guilt of her infidelity to Ratan.

Her new humility leaves her open to accepting Sonia when she comes to visit her, leading her to a moral conversion that redeems her character. By the end of her story, she chooses to give her jewelry to Sonia, signaling that she has overcome her covetous nature out of gratitude to her former rival and is ready to welcome Sonia into her family.

Ilan de Toorjen Foss is the novel’s other antagonist. He is a wealthy old painter who takes advantage of Sonia’s vulnerability to advance his career as an artist. Ilan’s relationships with women are heavily modeled on his parents’ relationship. Both of Ilan’s parents came from privileged families, though it is implied that his mother relied on Ilan’s father to secure her wealth. Ilan has a psychosexual relationship with his mother, which he explicates in the painting he produces during his relationship with Sonia, Mother Swimming: “[D]e Toorjen Foss’s artistic, erotic, and spiritual awakening had come when he had been seduced by the sight of his mother swimming” (430). He speaks poorly of his mother to Sonia, but tries to mimic his father by cheating on his wife to engender his creativity.

As evidenced by the mysterious woman Sunny encounters on Ilan’s Mexican property, Ilan typically preys on younger women to exploit their naivety and assert his control over them. He emotionally abuses Sonia through bursts of anger, which make her insecure about the security of their relationship. Sonia thus forces herself to accommodate Ilan’s temper, which only makes Ilan more demanding. This culminates in Sonia giving Badal Baba to Ilan, believing that she can purchase peace by sacrificing an important part of herself to him. Ilan’s fortune consequently grows with the possession of Badal Baba.

Though Sunny defeats Ilan by reclaiming Badal Baba for Sonia, it is suggested that Sonia also contributes to Ilan’s downfall by haunting him in his dreams. Ilan’s nightmares coincide with the time Sonia spends reclaiming herself in Goa. In Part 21, Chapter 73, Sonia dreams of herself confronting Ilan, which foreshadows his sudden disappearance and the return of Badal Baba to Sonia.

Seher Shah is Sonia’s mother and a supporting character in her story. She represents a counterpoint to the covetous and false lives that Babita and Manav live. Her strained relationship with her husband, Manav, compels her to pursue a life of her own. She consequently sheds her social circle and spends more time reading and in the company of cultural workers, which drives Manav’s envy. Manav’s antagonism forces Seher to retreat to Cloud Cottage, where she becomes defined by her nostalgia for her family.

Seher’s nostalgia becomes a mitigating force for her life, causing her to live almost exclusively for herself without showing care to Manav while he is dying. This frustrates Sonia, who is left to shoulder the burden of Manav’s care. It also inspires her to turn away from the emotional security that the past offers her in the present, eventually leading to Sonia’s return to Goa.