Summary

Pages 53 – 55— The chapter opens with a question in which an unidentified speaker asks an unidentified person if they would like to go on a walk. The question startles both Dinesh and Ganga into awareness of their surroundings. It is now later in the evening, and Dinesh and Ganga have been standing outside the tent in silence since Mr. Somasundaram left. Dinesh does not think Mr. Somasundaram will come back. Ganga recalls that after the ceremony, Mr. Somasundaram had cleaned the tent until it was “neat and empty as a house ready for fresh tenants”, instructed Dinesh and Ganga on how to proceed in case of emergency, and turned away from them “with a finality” (53). Though he said he was going to the clinic, Dinesh notices that Mr. Somasundaram walks away in another direction.

As Dinesh turns his thoughts back to the present moment, it...