The Water-Tap

The water-tap in the building where Ravi and Srinivas live is a symbol of the political connotations and implications at work in the novel’s domestic scene. While the landlord tries to pass the water-tap issue off as inconsequential, the reader sees that the fights that break out around the water-tap are symbols representing the larger issue of equal and available access to water.

The Upanishads

The Upanishads that Srinivas is depicted reading in the early chapter of the novel represent Srinivas’s desire and willingness to ask the larger spiritual and intellectual questions: who is he and what should he do with his life. Srinivas’s absorbed interest in the Upanishads also reflects his eagerness to isolate himself from others.

The Cake

The cake that Srinivas’s wife offers the landlord and that the landlord devours with great gusto reflects the landlord’s ravenous...