Chapter 1 Summary

Nariman Vakeel lives with his stepdaughter Coomy and stepson Jal in a comfortable flat in Chateau Felicity in Bombay. It is the evening of his seventy-ninth birthday. He is a retired professor and is showing early signs of Parkinson's disease. He has just awakened from his afternoon nap and is preparing to take his evening walk. Coomy crabs at him not to go, and Jal begs him. They are afraid something terrible will happen to him if he goes out alone. Nariman thinks that Coomy would have made a good headmistress enacting rules for hapless schoolgirls. In spite of their crabbing and pleading, he continues to prepare for his walk. He has locked himself in the bathroom while having a shave. This infuriates Coomy. She has laid down a rule that he is never to lock himself into any room. Nariman deals with...