Just before Mr. Biswas is born, his mother Bipti has an argument with his father, Raghu. She takes the three older children and walks to her parents' home in the village. There, her mother Bissoondaye and her father try to comfort her. Bipti's father, described as "futile with asthma," attributes the argument, and everything unpleasant, to fate. Despite this, the old man seems to regard fate with affection, as though mere survival were proof of special favor.
Bipti's mother puts the children to bed. Later that night the midwife comes, and Mr. Biswas is born. The birth is inauspicious. He is born at the midnight hour, in the wrong way, and has six fingers on each hand. The midwife immediately exclaims, "Whatever you do, this boy will eat up his own.....
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