Summary

In Chapter 31, Sunny clashes with his grandfather over Kashmir and recoils from the Colonel’s certainty that patriotism and family loyalty are the same thing. After Dadaji’s funeral, Sunny and Sonia sit together on the veranda and abandon polite small talk for an awkward honesty about loneliness. Sonia admits that returning from the United States leaves her disoriented and ashamed, and Sunny explains that his American life often feels like a subtraction of self rather than a liberation.

In Chapter 32, Sunny, back in New York, follows a strange news lead and interviews a railway clerk in Mysore who has grown record breaking fingernails, then returns to Delhi to find Babita tightening her grip on the household. Babita maneuvers to lure Khansama away from the Sharmas, and Sunny fights her, insisting that stealing the cook is immoral and that she is breaking promises he...