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| Edition: | Knopf (Hardcover) |
| Author: | |
| Published: | November 2001 |
| Pages: | 624 |
| ISBN 10: | 0375414819 |
| New: | $10.89 (10) |
| Used: | $0.39 (52) |
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A Fine Balance is the third book by Rohinton Mistry. Set in Mumbai, India between 1975 and 1977 during the turmoil of The Emergency, a period of expanded government power and crackdowns on civil liberties, this book is about four characters from varied backgrounds—Dina Dalal, Ishvar Darji, his nephew Omprakash and the young lad Maneck—who come together and develop a bond.
First published by McClelland and Stewart in 1995, it won the Giller Prize. In 2001 it is currently one of the only two Canadian books that have been selected into Oprah's Book Club. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1996. It was one of the selected books in the 2002 edition of Canada Reads, championed by actor Megan Follows.
Plot summary
The book exposes the changes in Indian society from independence in 1947 to the Emergency called by Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Mistry is generally critical of Gandhi in the book. Interestingly, however, Gandhi is never referred to by name by any of the characters, and is instead called simply "the prime minister". The characters, from diverse backgrounds, are all brought together by economic forces changing India.
Ishvar and Omprakash's family are part of the Chamaar caste, who traditionally cured leather and were considered untouchable. In an attempt to break away from the restrictive caste system, Ishvar's father apprentices his sons to a tailor, and they became tailors. As a result of their skills, passed on to Ishvar's brother's son, they move to Mumbai to get work, by then unavailable in the town near their village because a pre-made clothing shop has opened.
Maneck, from a small mountain village in northern India, moves to the city to acquire a college diploma "as a back up" in case his father's business is no longer able to compete after the building of a highway near their village.
Dina, from a traditionally wealthy family, maintains tenuous independence from her brother by living in the flat of her deceased husband.
Dina distances herself from the political ferment of the period: "Government problems and games played by people in power," she tells Ishvar. "It doesn't affect ordinary people like us"(Mistry, 86). But in the end it does affect all of them, drastically.
At the beginning of the book, two tailors, Ishvar and Omprakash, are on their way to the flat of Dina Dalal via a train. While on the train, they meet a college student named Maneck Kohlah, who coincidentally is also on his way to the flat of Dina Dalal to be a boarder. They become friends and go to Dina's flat together. Dina hires Ishvar and Om and agrees to let Maneck stay with her. Dina then reflects on her past and how she was brought to her current situation.
Dina grew up in a wealthy family. Her father was a doctor who died when she was twelve. Her mother was withdrawn and unable to take care of Dina after her father's death, so the job fell to Nusswan, Dina's brother. Nusswan was rather abusive to Dina, sticking her with all the housework, forcing her to do all the cooking, cleaning, and drop out of school, hitting her when she misbehaved, and once almost molesting her after she cut her hair without his permission. Dina rebelled against Nusswan and his prospective suitors for her when she became of age, and found her own husband, Rustom Dalal, at a theater. Nusswan and his wife Ruby were happy to get Dina out of their hair and let her marry Rustom and move to his flat. Dina and Rustom lived happily until Rustom died after being hit by a bus. Dina became a tailor under the guidance of Rustom's surrogate parents to avoid having to move in with Nusswan . Her eyesight gave out from complicated embroidery and she was once again jobless. She eventually met a lady from a company called Au Revoir Exports, who would buy ready-made dresses in Au Revoir patterns. She agrees to let Dina sew the patterns and she will buy the dresses and pay Dina. But since Dina has very poor eyesight, she decides to hire tailors. She also decides to have a paying guest to generate more income for her rent.
The tailors come to Dina's flat each day for nearly two weeks before the first round of dresses is completed. The three get along fairly well, but Dina and Omprakash don't see eye to eye all the time. Omprakash is angry that Dina is a middle-man and wants to sew for Au Revoir directly. Dina then locks the tailors in her flat from the outside so that they will not find out what company they are sewing for and thus cut her out of the picture, and sets off to Au Revoir Exports for the lady, Mrs. Gupta, to buy the dresses. Om and Ishvar hang out in the flat and the author reveals their past and how they came to the current situation.
Dukhi Mochi was a man who lived in Ishvar and Om's village. He was of the Chamaar caste, and being an "untouchable," was forced to do unseemly work for the upper castes and suffered much caste violence. He despised his lifestyle and when he had two sons, Ishvar and Narayan, he sent them off to be apprenticed at the shop of a tailor named Ashraf Chacha, who was a Muslim. Ashraf Chacha taught Ishvar and Narayan to be top-notch tailors. When Ishvar was about seventeen, there was terrible violence in the country against Muslims. Muslims were slaughtered and their homes and shops burned to the ground. Ishvar and Narayan save Ashraf Chacha and his family when a mob arrives by claiming that the shop is theirs. Ashraf is saved and indebted to Ishvar and Narayan. Ishvar stays on with Ashraf Chacha as an assistant even as he grows up, not returning to live in the village but often visits. Narayan moves back to the village and opens a tailor shop for the lower castes, which is highly successful. He eventually builds a house instead of a hut and has a son named Omprakash and two daughters. Narayan does not work for the upper castes and avoids them. However when the time comes to vote, he is angry that the votes are fixed by a powerful upper classman. The lower castes just give their fingerprint as proof of voting, and the upper castes fill in the ballots. Narayan is angry and confronts the upperclassman, Thakur Dharamsi, who fixes the votes. Thakur is angry and has Narayan and his accomplices taken to his house. They are strung up on a tree by their ankles and urinated on by Thakur's goons. They were flogged and at night, hot coals were held to their mouths and genitals. After, they were hanged and their bodies were displayed in the housing of the lower castes. Thakur wants to punish the whole family, so he has Narayan's father, mother, wife, and children and all family tied up in their house, then sets the house on fire, burning all of them to death. However, Ishvar and Om were at the shop of Ashraf Chacha, in the city that was far away, and therefore safe. They hear of the murders and try to involve the police, but bribed by Thakur, they do not help. A pre-made clothing shop opens in their city, so they are forced to move to Mumbai to find work. They hear of Dina Dalal through word of mouth and find work with her.
The tailors and Dina have a working arrangement when at last Maneck moves in. He befriends Omprakash and Ishvar, which Dina dislikes because she feels they are lower class. But the way Maneck was raised, he doesn't care about the classes and is friends with them despite Dina's displeasure. Dina likes Om and especially Ishvar, but doesn't necessarily consider them equals. As Maneck goes to school one day, the author in turn reveals his past.
Maneck was born in the mountain village to two loving parents, Mr. and Mrs. Kohlah. His father owned a store that had been in the family for generations. The store sold household necessities and the locally popular soda, Kohlah Cola. Maneck spent his days going to school, helping at the store, and going on walks with his father. When he was in the fourth standard, he was sent to boarding school to help his education, much to Maneck's dismay. After this his relationship with his parents deteriorates because he does not wish to be separated from them and feels betrayed. On a break from school, he is left alone to care for the shop for two days when his parents attend a wedding, and he rearranges some of the displays because he feels that the shop could use some pizzazz. He is extremely proud of his ideas and eager for his father's positive reaction. But when his father returns and finds the shop different, he yells at Maneck and is angry that the shop is not how he left it. Maneck loses much respect for his father and begins to shut himself off from his family. His parents only want the best for him, such as an education, but they are willing to send him away if that is what it takes, so they send him to a college and pick his major, refrigeration and air-conditioning, for him. Maneck goes to college and stays at the hostel. When he first arrives he is exhausted and settles on the bed. In the middle of the night he feels something crawling up his leg and discovers an infestation of cockroaches. His room turns out to be filled with vermin and he tries to kill all of them by stomping on them. A neighbor hears the noise and helps by giving him spray. Maneck becomes friends with this neighbor, Avinash, who is the student president. Avinash teaches Maneck chess and they play together often. The hostel conditions they live in are poor and the food is nearly inedible. When a vegetarian discovers meat in his soup, the students are disgusted and they almost attack the cafeteria workers. The students eventually are inspired and Avinash leads them in an uprising against the Institution for better conditions. He becomes involved in political events, for which Maneck has little interest, and their friendship is no longer a priority for Avinash. They start seeing each other quite infrequently. But when the Emergency is declared in India, political activists had to go into hiding in order to be safe, Avinash included. Maneck, no longer having friends in the dorm, has his mother arrange a different living situation for him, and he moves in with Dina Dalal, but still has Avinash's chess set, because he can't return it.
Their business runs fairly smoothly for almost a year, but effects of the Emergency bothers them often. The slums where the tailors live are knocked down by government cranes, and the people are forced to move on the streets. Ishvar and Om are lucky and Dina lets them stay with her. The tailors and Dina find trouble from the landlord, because she is not supposed to be running a business from her flat. She pretends that Ishvar is her husband and Om their son.
Ishvar and Om return to their village to find a wife for Omprakash. Maneck returns home, finished with college, but has stiff relations with his family and to find that his father's business is failing due to the invasion of cheap commercial sodas. He takes a job in the Middle East to escape the conditions.
Dina being alone now, and her protector the Beggarmaster having being murdered, has no protection from the greedy landlord who wants to charge more rent so is evicted. Dina is forced to again live with her brother, Nusswan, to her utter dismay and embarrassment.
Omprakash and Ishvar return to find that Ashraf Chacha is an elderly man whose wife died and daughters were all married off. He barely survives with his tailoring business but is safe from mobs because there is little Muslim persecution. He gives them a place to stay while they search for prospects for Om. While they walk around the village, they run into Thakur Dharamsi. Omprakash recognizes him and spits in his face. Thakur in turn recognizes Om, and decides to somehow pay Om back for his disrespect of an upper caste member. When Ashraf Chacha, Ishvar, and Om are in the village, they run into herders from the Family Planning Centre. At the Family Planning Centre, the government gives free vasectomies and tubectomies in an effort to control population. They are supposedly optional, but encouraged, and each Centre has a certain quota to fill or they are not paid. The Centre in this city did not fill its quota, so they took random people from the street and forced them into a truck that drove them to the Family Planning Centre. Ishvar and Om resist, because Ishvar wants Om to have a family. However they are beaten into the truck, including Ashraf Chacha. But since Ashraf Chacha is so old, he is gravely injured by the beating and dies on the street. Ishvar and Omprakash weep in the truck and beg to escape the surgery, but are forced into it. As they lay in an outside tent recovering with other victims, Thakur Dharamsi comes by to be sure that the Centre's quota was filled. He sees Om recovering and whispers something to a doctor. The doctor then takes Om back to surgery and cuts off his testicles. They encounter no more trouble from Thakur, now that he has had revenge by making Om a eunuch. Ishvar's legs become diseased and must be amputated from infection due to the vasectomy. However, Ishvar and Om have nowhere to go now that Ashraf Chacha died. His son-in-law sells his house and they are forced to live on the street. [edit] Epilogue
Eight years later, Maneck returns home from his Middle East job for his father's funeral. He is unhappy there as well. He tries to hail a taxi to the train station from the airport, but most taxi drivers refuse to take him because of the dangerous riots going on. He finally manages to convince a taxi driver to take him for nearly triple the normal fee. The taxi driver tells him that the riots going on are targeting Sikhs, a religious minority. Like the Muslim riots of long ago, they are burning their houses, chopping up the men and boys, raping the women and girls, and destroying their places of worship. The driver himself is a Sikh, and desperately needs the money. Maneck is repulsed by the violence and angry that there is nothing he can do. He returns home and goes to the funeral, but can't bring himself to truly miss his father, only the father of his young childhood.
While at home he reads old newspapers that his father has kept for some reason. In one he sees a picture of three teenage girls who hung themselves from a ceiling fan. He is saddened by the picture and reads from the article that the three girls hung themselves because their parents could not afford dowries for them to get married, and didn't want to shame their family by being unmarried their whole lives. The parents of the three daughters are heart-broken, but the article says that this is not the first time they have experienced heartache. They had a son, Avinash, a former student who advocated for fair politicians and better public conditions. He was found dead by railroad tracks, apparently having fallen off a train, but his injuries were suspicious and did not seem inflicted by his supposed cause of death. Maneck already knew of Avinash's death, but is astounded at suffering the family went through. He runs out into the rain storm that was occurring and later decides to visit Dina in the city.
He visits the city and visits Dina at her brother's house, and they catch up. He is pleased to see her and happy that she remembered him. She feels the same, as since she met Maneck she regarded him as a son. She gives Maneck Avinash's chess set that he accidentally left behind, and Maneck feels like he lost Avinash all over again. Maneck asks about Ishvar and Om, and Dina tells him that they have become beggars, and Ishvar lost his legs. Maneck is appalled, because he can't believe that the spirited tailors he knew would ever stop working and stoop so low as to become beggars. He can't understand how his friend Om would let himself down, and he excuses himself from Dina and promises to visit soon, upset from the news. As he leaves, he encounters Om and Ishvar on the street. The two former tailors are nearly unrecognizable because of their filth, and don't appear to recall him. They say "Salaam" to him, but he is too ashamed to greet them, thinking that they only want money and don't know who he is.
It turned out that Om and Ishvar were on their way to visit Dina. They are still friends, and she gives them meals and money when the house is empty. They visit her nearly every day. Dina and the beggars discuss their lives and how Maneck has changed from pleasant and friendly college student to distant refrigeration specialist. Om and Ishvar leave as Ruby returns, promising to visit after the weekend. Dina washes up their plates and evidence of their visit, and returns them to the cuboard to be used by Nusswan and Ruby. Maneck goes to the train station, his world shattered. He walks out on the tracks as an express train approaches the station. The author said, "Maneck's last thought was that he still had Avinash's chessmen."
