How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"Why fear?" said the old lady. "Am I note alone, and do I not manage?"
I thought of her sitting in the street all day long with the gunny sacking in front of her piled with a few annas’ worth of nuts and vegetables; and I thought of Ira doing the same thing, and I was silent.
"It is not unbearable," said she, watching me with her shrewd eyes. "One gets used to it.:
It is true, one gets used to anything. I had got used to the noise and the smell of the tannery; they no longer affected me. I had seen the slow, calm beauty of our village wilt in the blast from town, and I grieved no more; so now I accepted the future and Ira’s lot in it;… (11.47)
Faced with Old Granny’s poverty and isolation, Ruku has to admit that life is inescapably hard, especially for lone women. However, Old Granny offers the view that life is about adaptability and the ability to get used to anything. Ruku relinquishes her worry a little bit about this: one cannot strive in the face something against which one is powerless. Life is about change, and no amount of worrying will change that.
Quote #5
What was it we had to learn? To fight against tremendous odds? What was the use? One only lost the little one had. Of what use to fight when the conclusion is known? (12.23)
Rukmani disagrees with the assertion of Kenny and her sons that people must learn to fight for what they want. Ruku is not a risk-taker. To her, the potential consequences must out-weigh the potential risks. It’s important here to note that it isn’t that Ruku doesn’t understand that one can fight. Rather, she has thought about it and still decides that fighting isn’t worth it. In this passage, she proves she isn’t just a mindless pushover – instead she sees her life as a balance of the desired and the possible.
Quote #6
"Would you have us wasting our youth chafing against things we cannot change?" (12.51)
Ruku’s sons are very different than her and Nathan. Arjun responds sharply to her that the idea of wasting away one’s youth working against impossible odds is foolish. Of course, this is similar to what Ruku and Nathan have done, sticking their heads in the sand when life seems to offer them no options. The difference is not that they are less ambitious than their sons, but perhaps that they are less angry, and more accepting. Nathan and Ruku decided long ago that it is easier to stay and bear poverty in a place they know, than to set off to ills they know not of elsewhere. Even if it’s a poor life, this is their life.