Fasting, Feasting: Chapter 10 Summary & Analysis

In the modern day, Uma is invited to a coffee party thrown by Mrs. O’Henry, the Baptist missionary she admires. Mama and Papa say there is no good reason for Uma to go. Uma argues that Mama and Papa go out to see friends, but Mama say that they only go for Papa’s career. Against their protests, Uma goes. At the coffee party, Uma stands out from the other Indian ladies, complimenting Mrs. O’Henry on the peanut butter sandwiches, strong coffee, and other American snacks. She shows interest in the cards that Mrs. O’Henry presses and stamps. Mrs. O’Henry sees Uma as having “potential”—perhaps to become Christian – and invites Uma to a Christian retreat in the mountains of Landour. Uma doesn’t dare ask Mama and Papa if she can go. Instead, she returns home with a bundle of handmade cards, treasuring them as “tokens of a fairytale existence elsewhere.”

The novel flashes to an overview of Arun’s childhood, which centers entirely on school. Papa allows him no rest: All year round, Arun has a series of tutors hired to drill words, rules, facts and formulas into his brain. When finished each evening, his father urges him to go out and exercise, but Arun tiredly buries himself in comic books. When he reaches the end of his high school exams, Papa plunges him into applying for college, taking more tests, and applying for scholarships. When Arun’s letter of acceptance to the University of Massachusetts finally arrives, Arun shows no excitement or relief, only exhaustion. Uma packs his bags while his father rests and his mother cries in pride, but even as he departs, Arun shows no joy. Uma is saddened, wishing he would be happy so that at least someone would be happy, even if she cannot be.