Summary

Ram Charan invites Bakha inside and Bakha begins eating sugar-plums. Gulabo, Ram’s mother, spots them and begins to abuse Bakha. Ram rebukes his mother and leads Bakha back to the sloping hills behind the house. Bakha relaxes among the flowers and dreams of living another life out of the shadows of being an untouchable. He feels attuned to the flow and peace of nature.

Bakha tells his friends of his experience in town that morning and they ask him why he did not strike the man back. Bakha tells his story freely, including his sister’s mistreatment by the priest and the woman who threw the bread down from the top of her house into the alleyway. Bakha feels defeated by his continual mistreatment, but his friends remind him that they are untouchables and they must not wallow in how others...