Summary

The premise of “In the Bug Room” involves a return to home by a man named Chinmoy, who has driven cabs in America for years in order to earn money to send home to his mother. However, Chinmoy’s life in America has not gone well (he has failed to complete a degree), and he decides to return to his family home in India, on Chatterjee Lane. When he arrives, Chinmoy is greeted by the family’s maid, Shefali, and he realizes that the house has slowly begun to fall into ruin. Wanting to revisit the rooms of his childhood, he demands of Shefali that he be given access to her key ring, but she refuses, vexing Chinmoy. That evening, he speaks with his mother, then buys several bottles of alcohol and visits a...