Summary

“The Seventh Night” Balram begins the final chapter of his narrative looking up at his chandelier for inspiration. He then picks up the story where he left off, describing picking up Dharam and taking a zigzag route south from Delhi towards Bangalore; describing how he convinced an illiterate man that one of the “Wanted” posters looking for Balram is, in fact, looking for someone else; how he (Balram) needed four weeks to calm his nerves; and how he figured out what he needed to do to make a living – drive late-night taxis for all the late-night workers in Bangalore.

At first Balram’s efforts to make this happen meet with little success: other people, it seems, had the idea before him. But then he uses some of the money he stole from Mr. Ashok and bribes a policeman, who puts one of the other...