Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard: Chapter 16 Summary & Analysis

The Hungry Hop boy sits in his family’s house, still reeling from the day Pinky bit his ear. The rest of his large family (mostly women) takes pity on him, figuring it might be a while before he gathers the courage to go outside again. Images of Pinky still swirl about his mind, and he fears the day he might see her again. Meanwhile, Sampath sits in his tree and offers Pinky another aphorism, this one concerning worms that are forced out of the ground by rain. But as he tries to comfort his sister, he’s plagued by doubts and worries of his own. He worries about what might happen to him and the monkeys, hungrily wishing he could absorb the beautiful landscape around him into his own being.

Pinky sits under Sampath’s tree and writes a note to the Hungry Hop boy, still glad to have bitten him but hoping that the event won’t mark the end of their relationship. She once again takes Sampath’s advice to heart, hoping to barrage the boy with reminders of herself until he has no choice but to face her again. Her note explains that she’s sorry for biting his ear, as the sight of him made her overwhelmed with emotion, which manifested itself in the wrong way. After heading into town and approaching the boy’s house, she sees the women of the household sitting in front of the entrance in a leisurely way. Knowing that they’d all turn on her the moment they recognized her, Pinky slips into the back alley behind the house.

When Pinky sees the Hungry Hop boy sitting by the open bathroom window above her, she’s once again overwhelmed with emotion. She affixes her note to a small rock and throws it upwards, where it hits the boy on his jaw, causing him to stagger back. Shaking and reeling, he reads the note attached to the rock and wonders if there could really be love between himself and Pinky. He sits in the bathroom pondering this for so long that the women of the family eventually begin pounding on the door, wondering what’s taking him so long. After finally breaking into the room, they figure he must have injured himself and their sympathy for him begins to wane. They tell him to pull himself together as Pinky lingers under the window, pining for him.

From this moment on, Pinky and the Hungry Hop boy begin a strange sort of regular correspondence. Pinky continues to visit Hungry Hop during his bath hour, and the two of them exchange items of affection through the window. In Hungry Hop’s case, these items are just common objects he finds in the bathroom, but Pinky appreciates the gestures all the same. When the boy’s family finds out about this arrangement, they resolve to put an end to it and begin to guard the house to prevent Pinky from visiting again. They also inform Mr. Chawla and ask him to stop his daughter from bothering their son. Despite these obstacles, Pinky and the Hungry Hop boy still find a way to communicate by bribing the milkman to deliver letters to each other.