Summary

The morning after the wedding reception, Ram worries that Anita saw him inappropriately touch Asha. He feels “moments of complete calm and moments of overwhelming terror” (70). He decides to travel to his home village, Beri, to find the pundit. On the bus to Beri, shame overwhelms Ram. He notes that his mind “was attracted to what is loathsome and humiliating” (73). In a series of flashbacks, he recalls his life.

Ram grows up in the years prior to Indian independence. His mother, who Ram loves deeply, suffers from a mental illness. When Ram is a teenager, his father enrolls him in a school run by the Arya Samaj, a precursor of the BJP. During the partition of India, Ram witnesses horrific violence against Muslim residents. The Hindus in town “hardly discussed” (78) the massacres.

When Ram is seventeen, his mother dies of pneumonia. After her death...