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Chapter 10
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Absurdity and Chaos
Nature vs. Modernity
Traditions, Customs, and Expectations
Exploitation of Spirituality
Summary
Analysis
Kulfi continues to relish her new life out in the wilderness, and all the culinary opportunities it offers her. She hunts and forages constantly for new ingredients to add to her increasingly complex dishes. These extravagant meals are still only intended for Sampath, who genuinely assures Kulfi that her food is excellent by desperately asking for more. Mr. Chawla, still bewildered by this behavior, warns that Kulfi will poison Sampath if she keeps using so many strange ingredients. But she tells him that she always lets a chicken sample her food beforehand as a poison taste-tester.
The new status quo of life in the orchard continues as Kulfi carries on with her foraging and cooking. Notably, she remains indifferent to Sampath’s visitors, still focusing solely on feeding the man himself. This shows that Kulfi’s new experiences haven’t changed her or lessened her unusual behavior. This new life in nature has simply given her an opportunity to live in the way she’s always wanted to live.
Themes
Nonetheless, Mr. Chawla feels he can’t possibly understand Kulfi, as he wonders whether she ever analyzes the emotions that animate her so completely. At one point, he remarks that he would have her committed to a mental hospital if it wouldn’t sully the family name. Meanwhile, Sampath’s devotees feel drawn to the smell of her meals, which are forbidden to all except Sampath himself. The spy from the Atheist Society is especially interested in Kulfi’s cooking pot, as he continues to believe that her food is the source of Sampath’s influence over people. Eventually, the smell of Kulfi’s cooking causes so much fuss that Mr. Chawla limits the visiting hours at the orchard so that no outsiders are present when Sampath is having his meals. This rule of limited access only makes Sampath more and more popular.
Mr. Chawla’s comment about the mental hospital—genuine or not—reveals the extent of his obsession with tradition and normalcy at the expense of everything else. In his view, Kulfi is merely something that needs to be fixed or corrected—in other words, brought into line with his own expectations for how his wife “should” behave. The disconnect between Mr. Chawla and Kulfi contrasts sharply with the implicit, shared understanding between Sampath and Kulfi, who both happily reject Mr. Chawla’s cultural norms. However, more than anything else, Sampath’s growing popularity reflects Mr. Chawla’s ability to coldly exploit the emotional needs of others for his own gain.
Themes
