In Custody

by

Anita Desai

Mr. Jain’s nephew Chiku is Deven’s “technical assistant” for recording the interviews with Nur. Unfortunately, Chiku is lazy, incompetent, and completely ignorant about poetry. He constantly falls asleep on the job and records the wrong parts of Nur’s speeches—such as his food orders, but not his poetry recitations. Remorseless and hostile, Chiku complains that the work is keeping him from his sister’s wedding preparations and threatens to quit unless Deven pays him. Ultimately, Chiku’s recordings turn out to be completely useless, but Mr. Jain blames Deven for not securing the right recording space or properly directing him. Like Murad, Jain, Safiya, and arguably Nur himself, Chiku figures out how to manipulate and profit off Deven’s weakness of will and blind adoration for Nur.

Chiku Quotes in In Custody

The In Custody quotes below are all either spoken by Chiku or refer to Chiku . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Memory and the Passage of Time Theme Icon
).
Chapter 9 Quotes

Frantic to make [Nur] resume his monologue now that the tape was expensively whirling, Deven once forgot himself so far as to lean forward and murmur with the earnestness of an interviewer, “And, sir, were you writing any poetry at the time? Do you have any verse belonging to that period?”

The effect was disastrous. Nur, in the act of reaching out for a drink, froze. “Poetry?” he shot at Deven, harshly. “Poetry of the period? Do you think a poet can be ground between stones, and bled, in order to produce poetry—for you?

Related Characters: Deven Sharma (speaker), Nur (speaker), Imtiaz , Chiku
Related Symbols: Tape Recorder, Parrots and Jackals
Page Number: 170
Explanation and Analysis:

[Nur] broke into a verse that Deven had never heard before, that no one in the room had heard before, that entered into their midst like some visitor from another element, silencing them all with wonder. […] Seizing the book from [Deven], [Nur] wrote in it himself, holding it on his knee, stopping to lick the pencil now and then, peering at the letters with his cataract-filled eyes, while around him the babble broke out again as his audience excitedly discussed this new verse of his. […] This was the audience Nur had always had to try his verses on, Deven saw, revolted by their flattery, and he knelt behind Nur in reverential silence, watching him write, keeping himself apart from the others, the one true disciple in whose safe custody Nur could place his work.

Related Characters: Nur (speaker), Deven Sharma, Chiku
Related Symbols: Tape Recorder
Page Number: 183-184
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire In Custody LitChart as a printable PDF.
In Custody PDF

Chiku Quotes in In Custody

The In Custody quotes below are all either spoken by Chiku or refer to Chiku . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Memory and the Passage of Time Theme Icon
).
Chapter 9 Quotes

Frantic to make [Nur] resume his monologue now that the tape was expensively whirling, Deven once forgot himself so far as to lean forward and murmur with the earnestness of an interviewer, “And, sir, were you writing any poetry at the time? Do you have any verse belonging to that period?”

The effect was disastrous. Nur, in the act of reaching out for a drink, froze. “Poetry?” he shot at Deven, harshly. “Poetry of the period? Do you think a poet can be ground between stones, and bled, in order to produce poetry—for you?

Related Characters: Deven Sharma (speaker), Nur (speaker), Imtiaz , Chiku
Related Symbols: Tape Recorder, Parrots and Jackals
Page Number: 170
Explanation and Analysis:

[Nur] broke into a verse that Deven had never heard before, that no one in the room had heard before, that entered into their midst like some visitor from another element, silencing them all with wonder. […] Seizing the book from [Deven], [Nur] wrote in it himself, holding it on his knee, stopping to lick the pencil now and then, peering at the letters with his cataract-filled eyes, while around him the babble broke out again as his audience excitedly discussed this new verse of his. […] This was the audience Nur had always had to try his verses on, Deven saw, revolted by their flattery, and he knelt behind Nur in reverential silence, watching him write, keeping himself apart from the others, the one true disciple in whose safe custody Nur could place his work.

Related Characters: Nur (speaker), Deven Sharma, Chiku
Related Symbols: Tape Recorder
Page Number: 183-184
Explanation and Analysis: