Bal's own son has qualified as an airline pilot; his daughter is a solicitor. In this sense, Bal feels his life has been accomplished.
No one in his family knows this, as it is a low occupation. Mr Patil's father was also a carpenter, but he built film sets in Bombay. He believed in doing everything well. Around Bal's neck hangs an emblem of Hanuman the monkey god, emblem of strength, inherited from his father.
Bal's own son has qualified as an airline pilot; his daughter is a solicitor. In this sense, Bal feels his life has been accomplished.
This has left Bal with a bad conscience. He shaves exfoliating granite until there is something like solid stone. Sometimes the stones, like toast sliced too thin, collapse.
Yesterday, through one grey window, the sun came out, and in a sideways light, a vanished name emerged from the stone. Virginia..... 1839 . It was like a face. Bal is an imaginative man, and saw Victorian dress, hair, eyes.
A native Marathi speaker, Bal keeps a bound volume of Ramdas open on his table. Ramdas abjures us: don't talk, act. This is wrong. His hair twirls faster.