Cracking India

Lenny’s mother and Electric-aunt take secretive trips in the car. Lenny and her cousin want to know why. Ayah tells them that the two women are transporting trunk-loads of gasoline. Ayah realizes immediately that she has said too much, but when Lenny pushes, Ayah admits that the shed is full of gasoline and that she has helped Mother load them into the car. Ayah doesn’t seem to realize the implications of this, but Lenny and Cousin know at once that their mothers must be using the gasoline to keep the city burning. Disturbed, they pray separately. One day, Hari, who has changed his name to Himat Ali to reflect his new Muslim faith, walks Lenny to school. Outside the Salvation Army building, there is a smell and they spot a gunnysack. Inside are the dismembered remains of Masseur. Lenny is in shock and Himat Ali grieves for his friend as a crowd gathers around them.

There are no longer Sikhs or Hindus in Lenny’s neighborhood. The houses they lived in have been looted and are beginning to fall into disrepair. Muslim refugees can only move into the large, expensive homes if they can prove that they owned something similar in India. The Singh house next door is decaying, but the children see signs that someone has moved into the bungalow out back. The new inhabitants, grieving and traumatized Muslims, will remain unseen for several months. Ayah grieves the loss of Masseur and Lenny feels powerless to help her. Ice-candy-man begins to follow Ayah again.

One day, as the fires in the city die off, a Muslim mob arrives on Lenny’s street, but the Hindus and Sikhs they are searching for are long gone. Lenny is shushed when she asks for Ayah—Ayah is hiding. As the mob approaches the Sethi house, Lenny realizes that they are no longer driven by blinded rage, but are instead calm and collected: “calculating men, whose ideals and passions have cooled to ice” (231). They’re disappointed to learn that the Hindu lodgers have left, Hari has converted to Islam, and Papoo and her parents have become Christian. Then they ask for Ayah, who is Hindu, and Imam Din claims that she fled the city. Suddenly Ice-candy-man appears in the crowd and hugs Lenny, swearing to protect Ayah and asking where she is hiding. Lenny tells him and realizes in an instant what she has done. The men search the house, dragging a terrified Ayah into their car and leaving.

Lenny is racked with guilt. She relentlessly scrubs her tongue to punish it for telling the truth, becoming ill and unable to eat. A general listlessness permeates the house and the servants. When Papoo’s wedding day arrives, Papoo is sullen, insolent, and seems to be drunk. Lenny first thinks that like Papoo, the groom seems to only be about 11 or 12, but up close, Lenny is horrified to see that he is an ugly, middle-aged man with a cruel face who happens to be very short. Later, watching Muccho feed her daughter with a smug expression on her face, Lenny realizes that Papoo has been drugged. Throughout the day, the groom leers at other girls. Papoo must be “shaken awake and surreptitiously propped up by Muccho” for the ceremony (243).

Across the street from the Sethi home, behind a house abandoned by a Hindu doctor, something strange is going on. Lenny, Adi, and Cousin sneak over to the roof of the doctor’s house. Sikh guards stand near a padlocked gate where women doing chores, so Lenny assumes that it must be a prison for women.

Mother hires a new ayah. In the interview, Lenny immediately recognizes the woman, having seen her at the “prison” across the street. But the woman seems so pitiful that Lenny stays quiet. The children call the new ayah by her name, Hamida, as they are unwilling to call her Ayah. Mother and Electric-aunt search fruitlessly for Ayah. Sharbat Khan returns to town, and Hari (now Himat Ali) tells him about finding Masseur’s body. The two men also search for Ayah. Sharbat Khan stares accusingly at Lenny, finally saying, “Children are the Devil… They only know the truth” (248). Lenny is ashamed.

Hamida is timid and must be taught every aspect of her new job: housework, bathing, and massaging Lenny’s leg (although Lenny notes that her limp is nearly gone). Sometimes Hamida cries. One day, Hamida tells Lenny that Imam Din has houseguests. They are refugees from Pir Pindo, who had been attacked by Sikhs and “had suffered a lot” (249). Lenny races inside and finds an emaciated and brutalized Ranna. When Ranna sees Lenny, he runs to hide in Imam Din’s room, but Lenny refuses to leave. Ranna allows Hamida to hold him, eventually describing the attack in bits and pieces, with Ranna’s aunt and uncle chiming in. Lenny learns that Pir Pindo and Ranna’s family are gone. Most of the residents of Pir Pindo, insulated from the violence outside of the village, had refused to leave their ancestral land and evacuate with the others. 

For this section, Lenny shifts away from her own story to Ranna’s narrative. Ranna’s father, Dost Mohammad, and a group of men inform the townspeople of Pir Pindo that mobs of Sikhs and Hindus have brutally attacked at least five Muslim villages, looting, burning, raping the women, and murdering their inhabitants. The police have joined the attacks. Ranna’s grandmother laments their decision a month prior not to go to Pakistan, but the leaders of both countries had promised that religious minorities would be protected. The villagers are ill prepared for fighting. Their plan is for the men to fight off the mob as long as possible to allow time for the women to avoid rape by burning themselves alive.

But the next morning, the attack happens too quickly. Ranna’s mother and sisters send him to hide in a room with the other children and some of the men. Ranna’s father comforts him as they hear the screams of the attack and women being raped. Suddenly, they are discovered. Dost Mohammad begs the attackers to spare the children and raise them as Sikhs, and Ranna watches them behead his father. The Sikhs massacre everyone in the room except Ranna, whom they leave for dead. In flashes of consciousness, Ranna hears screams and sees his 11-year-old sister running naked. When Ranna wakes up, he is surrounded by piles of bodies. He moves toward the mosque, where he hears voices, but several dying men warn him that the Sikhs are there. Women are screaming inside.

Ranna runs, falling unconscious in the sugarcane field. When he wakes up, Ranna hears Sikhs nearby and sees Pir Pindo on fire. The mob leaves and Ranna runs to the next village, where his aunt and uncle live. The people there are in the middle of evacuating. Ranna’s aunt doesn’t recognize him at first. The back of Ranna’s head has been scalped. Ranna passes out again and his aunt is certain he is about to die. An old woman urges her to leave him to die in peace. Ranna wakes up alone and hears the Sikh and Hindu mob chanting. He runs through the deserted village, wondering why he was left behind, and hides in a pile of hay. The mob is surprised that the village is empty. They stab at the hay, striking Ranna more than once. Ranna passes out again after the men are gone. When Ranna wakes up, he wanders, scavenging food among the brutalized bodies. Finally, Ranna ends up at a refugee camp where he finds his aunt and uncle.

Ayah is still missing. The cook at Cousin’s house claims that she is still in Lahore but refuses to say more. Hearing Lenny’s constant talk of Ranna, Godmother uses her massive sphere of influence to secure him a place in a Christian convent—a near-impossible feat. Ranna stays safe there and visits frequently.

Lenny can’t sleep. At night, she hears screams from the “prison” and her parents fighting, and she dreams about the terrible things she’s seen. Lenny still wonders about the women across the street and reveals to Hamida that she saw her there. Hamida confesses that it is a camp for “fallen women,” not a prison, but is terrified to say more. Godmother explains that Sikhs had kidnapped Hamida, and that often, raped women cannot go back to their husbands, or if unmarried, cannot find someone to marry them.

Lenny is infuriated, but also anxious because she is suddenly keenly aware of the boys and men around her. She develops breasts, which she guards closely. She tells Cousin that she worries that no one will marry her because she has a limp. Cousin offers to marry her, and Lenny agrees that she finds him attractive, but admits that she doesn’t feel passion for him. Lenny tells Cousin that she has found other men more attractive and doesn’t hear the bitterness in his voice when he says, “Do me a favor. […] Think of all the people you find more attractive than me—and let me know” (279). While walking with Cousin, she points out the men she is attracted to. Eventually Cousin asks why she doesn’t feel the same way about him, but Lenny doesn’t know. 

Lenny watches the camp next door religiously. Kidnapped women are brought there to be reunited with their families, and Lenny is certain that she will see Ayah there. Lenny asks Hamida about her children, whom she is not allowed to see. Hamida misses them, but calls the situation kismet, or fate. Lenny insists that you can change your fate, but Hamida tells her the story of a King and Queen desperate for a son. They learn that because of the king’s bad karma, a tiger will kill their future son when he is 16. The king kills every tiger in the kingdom, prays for forgiveness, and surrounds his son with guards. But right before he turns 17, the boy is killed when a tiger in a painting comes to life. Lenny finds many aspects of the story unfair.

Lenny and Hamida hear a commotion and run down to the kitchen. Imam Din has caught a large tomcat that has been sneaking into the kitchen. Lenny screams that he’ll kill the cat. Mother shows up, and yells at Imam Din to release the cat. To Imam Din’s bewilderment, Mother starts hitting him with a flyswatter. The cat escapes and Mother scolds Imam Din until, dejected, he starts to cry. The other servants mock Imam Din. That night, Imam Din reports to Father that Mother had drawn blood with her flyswatter. Father teasingly calls him a woman and soon they are all laughing, a rare moment of joy and connection amid the terrible recent occurrences.

One day, Lenny suddenly realizes that no one is searching for Ayah anymore. They are only pretending. But Lenny isn’t ready to give up.

Lenny describes the next period as “a bad phase in [her] life” (292).

When she approaches Cousin about the search for Ayah, he acts disinterested and standoffish. This makes Lenny lovesick over her cousin, following him and staring at him. Ranna visits every week until when he sees Lenny’s obsession with Cousin. Lenny notes that she and Ranna were always going to grow apart because their lives are too different.

One day Cousin exclaims that he has seen Ayah and kisses Lenny. Annoyed, Lenny realizes that Cousin faked indifference to make her love him. Besides, she wants to hear about Ayah. Cousin saw her dressed up and in makeup like a movie star. Cousin tries to kiss Lenny again, but when he touches her breasts, Lenny hits him. Cousin is confused, but finally promises to wait a few years for Lenny to grow up. In the meantime, Cousin will work earnestly to find Ayah to win Lenny’s affection. 

One late evening, Lenny spots Ayah from a taxi. She is dressed up, as Cousin said, and it takes Lenny a moment to recognize her. Lenny begs Hamida to take her to the park to look for her and she finally relents, but first, Lenny and Adi must go to Godmother’s as Dr. Mody is visiting. There, Godmother berates Slavesister. Dr. Mody impresses the children by farting when they pull his finger. When Hamida finally takes Lenny to the park, the statue of Queen Victoria has disappeared. Moreover, there are only Muslims there, and Lenny misses the diversity of the Sikhs and Hindus. Lenny goes to Godmother and insists that both she and Cousin have seen Ayah.

Godmother deflects for a while before confessing that Ayah is with her family, and that Mother and Electric-aunt took their secret car trips to help kidnapped women escape. Lenny is surprised that her godmother doesn’t know about the gasoline and that her mother and aunt are actually arsonists. Lenny goes to Cousin, who tells her that Ayah is dressed up and in makeup because she is now an exotic dancer and hints that she is a prostitute. Lenny asks for clarification and, as always, Cousin tries to show rather than tell by pulling down her underwear. Lenny hits Cousin and he tells her that he learned this from their cook.

Lenny goes to her mother next, accusing her of arson. Mother, confused, explains that since gasoline is rationed, they store it and bring it to people who need help escaping. Lenny is upset that her mother didn’t trust her, but remembers, “How could she have? How can anyone trust a truth-infected tongue?” (309). The next time Lenny visits Godmother, Godmother tells her that Ayah is actually in Lahore and has gotten married. In fact, Ayah’s husband is coming to see them. Lenny discovers that the husband is Ice-candy-man. He seems very different from the last time Lenny saw him, suave and spouting poetry. Godmother questions Ice-candy-man, who explains that Ayah is now a dancer, but everything is entirely proper.

Ice-candy-man claims that they only live in the red-light district because the area was originally where kings housed the children they had by their mistresses, and Ice-candy-man was descended from one of those kings. Unimpressed, Godmother berates Ice-candy-man for profiting from his wife’s body. Additionally, not only did he allow Ayah to be kidnapped and raped so he could marry her, but he waited four months to do so: Ayah had been kidnapped in February and Ice-candy-man didn’t marry until May, when she was about to go back to her family. Lenny is so upset she nearly faints, her eyes now opened “to the pitiless face of love” (320).

One day Godmother suddenly decides to visit Ayah. Lenny pleads and cries until Godmother agrees to bring her along. Slavesister criticizes Godmother for taking Lenny, but Godmother ridicules her sister. It is daytime, when the red-light district is mostly quiet. Ice-candy-man opens the door and is surprised to see them. Ayah, whom he has renamed Mumtaz, is heavily made up and covered in silk and jewelry, but Lenny notices that Ayah no longer seems vibrant or full of life. After a moment, she and Lenny embrace. But when Ice-candy-man leaves the room, Ayah says in a rough voice that she wants to go home to her family. Godmother asks Ayah if her husband takes care of her and suggests that she learn to be happy with the marriage, but Ayah cannot forget that he took part in kidnapping and raping her. She wants to return to her family, whether they want her back or not.

Godmother tells Ayah that she will do what she can. When Ice-candy-man returns, Godmother demands to know how long Ayah has been despondent and lifeless. Ice-candy-man pleads with Godmother to convince Ayah to accept him and their marriage, promising to give her everything. Godmother replies, “We shall see” (335). Lenny is desperate to tell Cousin everything, but Cousin is primarily upset that Lenny went to the red-light district, adding that if she had gone at night, she would have seen more and likely been raped. When Lenny asks what rape is, Cousin replies with an odd look, “I’ll show you someday” (338). Cousin partly explains what happens in the red-light district after Lenny insists that he not try to show her: He only describes the dancing and that pimps introduce the women to men. Before explaining prostitution, Cousin decides that he’s tired of teaching.

Mother is entertaining a neighbor, a homeopathic healer, and his family. She summons their new lodger, a German doctor whom Mother finds amazing because he has finished the job of curing Lenny’s limp. Suddenly, there is a commotion across the street. A Sikh guard has beaten up Ice-candy-man. Earlier, as Ice-candy-man left his house, Godmother executed her plan to have the police extract Ayah and bring her to what is now called the Recovered Women’s Camp. Ice-candy-man tried to follow her, but the guard stopped him. As Ice-candy-man drives away, Mother threatens to “call the police and have him hung upside down” (346) if he shows up again. Ayah is too busy getting registered for the camp to see Lenny, but Lenny chants “Ayah” over and over until all of the women and children join in, “reflecting their cumulative sorrows and the sorrows of their Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, and Rajput great-grandmothers” (348). Ayah appears for a moment and then disappears inside. 

Ice-candy-man is ever-present on Lenny’s street, but the Sikh guard deems him harmless and leaves him alone. He doesn’t dare to set foot on the Sethis’ property, but he hangs around and recites poetry, sometimes selling popsicles as well. When Ayah leaves the house to see the homeopathic healer next door, Ice-candy-man is polite, but she ignores him. Lenny pities him. Ice-candy-man leaves flowers for Ayah every morning at the Recovered Women’s Camp, until one day, Lenny notices that there are no flowers. She learns that Ayah has gone to be with her family in India and that Ice-candy-man had left as well, following her across the border.