The most notable literary quality that Desai employs is hyperbole. Desai makes each event that occurs in the novel far grander, by adding an almost magical description. A lost boy, frustrated by the indentured state of his life with a strictly structured society, runs away. But rather than running to a new city, he climbs a guava tree and decides to stay. His stay evolves into a state of sainthood, all because he read people's mail while working at the post office and thus can speak to the people about their private affairs. When Kulfi is pregnant with Sampath, she is not just hungry, she is ravenous, totally obsessed by the idea of food. So much so that, when she can no longer bribe the market sellers for adequate food supplies, she begins to draw the food she desires all over the walls of her house...