Summary

Like Part One, Part Two begins with a story described as one that “will save your life” (119). It is the story of a homeless beggar woman named Junction-ki-Rani who works the traffic lines for handouts like a “scarecrow someone had uprooted from a paddy field and planted under a traffic light for a laugh” (120). A widow estranged from her son, she pins all her hopes on her beautiful daughter who is living in the city and studying engineering on scholarship. One night as she is walking home, the girl is abducted by four men. She is raped and killed. Junction-ki-Rani is inconsolable. After she attends her daughter’s cremation, she cannot get the stench of the girl’s ashes off her hands. The police never find the men, and the mother dies two years later forgotten along the streets. The police as per...