Summary

Chapter 2 takes place in December of 1969. Rahel, Estha, Ammu, Baby Kochamma, and Uncle Chacko are on their way to Cochin to see “The Sound of Music” for the third time. They will stay overnight in a hotel. The next day, they will pick up Margaret Kochamma and Sophie Mol from the airport. They are coming from England to spend Christmas with the family. Margaret has just lost her second husband in an accident, and her first husband Uncle Chacko has invited them. The children have never met Sophie Mol, but they have been thinking about her and practicing their English in anticipation.

Uncle Chacko was educated at Oxford and reads books. His intellectual eccentricity is accepted by the family.

Ammu is 27 years old, and she knows that her life is basically over because she married the wrong man. When she was 18, she had no...