Act 2 Part 2 Summary

A conversation between Mrs. Swan and Anish about gin-and-tonic leads Mrs. Swan to comment that her husband died of a stroke in the middle of umpiring a cricket match, and Anish to reveal that his father (Das) died on Christmas Day while he (Anish) was in England. He talks about how he went home for the funeral, opened the trunk that his father had left him, discovered a newspaper account of Das's arrest, and the small watercolor portrait of Flora. Mrs. Swan refers to the way he painted Flora realistically and the rest of the painting in a flatter, Indian style. Anish explains that Hindus like his father painted in the language of symbols, referring to the open book on Flora's bed as a symbol of who Das thought she was, and the tree with falling leaves as a symbol of...