The Inheritance of Loss

Biju learns from newsagent Mr. Iype about the unrest in Kalimpong. Biju, worried about his father, obtains a stolen phone number from a street hustler and calls the MetalBox guesthouse in Kalimpong. The watchman runs for the cook, who abandons his dinner preparations for the phone.

The MetalBox watchman’s family listens in as the cook shouts to Biju over the guesthouse phone. They can barely hear each other but manage to convey that each is safe and well. The watchman’s wife sees telephone lines swaying outside, and children climb a tree to stabilize the line. The cook lies that there is “NO TROUBLE NOW” (253) in Kalimpong. The cook asks when Biju will come home next, and Biju, heartbroken, realizes Harish-Harry won’t give him leave from Gandhi Cafe. The phone line goes dead. The watchman says Biju will call back, but he does not.

Biju stands on the street in New York, sad that he and his father had so little of substance to say to each other. He fears never seeing his father again. The cook considers someone’s stray comment that Biju will return to India fat. Biju, however, has grown so thin that he wears child-sized clothes from the 99 cent store.