Chapter 7 Summary

This chapter is the story of Nitin, as read in his diary. Nitin starts his diary by explaining that he came from a wealthy family and got his position through connections. He talks about how Calcutta was being crushed in poverty caused by the partition of India fifty years ago, the war in Bangladesh twenty years ago and natural disasters, which drove people to the cities. He and his colleagues were separated from this by their wealth and lives of luxury.

He, his colleagues, and other wealthy boys from the tea estates, spent their time drinking, having affairs with women whose names they never learned, and betting on anything that they could bet on.

Eventually he was offered a choice of going to an executive training course or managing a tea estate; he chose to go to the tea estate because of the...