Coolie

The next day, Saturday, is a half day. Munoo explores Bombay. He heads to the beach of the Arabian Sea to get away from the claustrophobic noise and confusion of the city. He is enthralled by the sea breezes until he sees a storm gathering on the horizon. On the way back, a heavy rain starts; the “earth seemed to shake and the elements to reverberate with a weird agitation” (192). By the time he returns to the hut, the rains have collapsed the straw roof. With nowhere else to go, he heads across the courtyard to Ratan’s tenement, a solid three-story home with a courtyard and a small garden. Ratan, with a “deep flush of a broad grin” (194), happily takes in Munoo. The tenement is crowded, but Ratan’s family welcomes Munoo. They give him a bowl of rice and offer him a straw pallet to sleep on.

The following day, Munoo and Hari return to the factory. They are stunned to learn that the company still intends to charge them rent for the destroyed hut and, on top of that, that they expect Hari to cover the cost of repairing it. Hari does not have the money.