The Inheritance of Loss: Chapter 30 Summary & Analysis

The cook is putting buffalo meat into Mutt’s stew, and worries that food and supplies are getting harder and harder to buy because of the strikes. He has a sudden panic, thinking that Biju might be dead.

Years prior, when the cook’s wife had died falling from a tree, his village had warned that her ghost was threatening to take Biju with her because she had died violently. The cook asked the judge to let him return to his village to make a sacrifice, but the judge had refused, saying that the priests were only trying to rob him of his money. Eventually, the cook lied and said that the roof of his village hut had blown off, and the judge allowed him to go. The cook worries that because he lied, the sacrifice hadn’t really worked.

The cook first tried to send Biju abroad when a recruiting agent for a cruise ship line appeared in Kalimpong. Biju interviewed, was accepted, and signed with the company, and the cook was extremely proud. The next day, they went back to the hotel with a medical form and eight thousand rupees to cover his processing fee and the cost of the training camp.

Two weeks later, Biju traveled to Kathmandu for the training, only to find out that he had been cheated. A local butcher, in the process of wrestling a goat to be slaughtered, noticed him and told him that many others had come in search of this training. The butcher cursed at the goat and then slit her throat.

Biju’s second attempt to go to America involved applying for a tourist visa. Biju had gone to the U.S. embassy and stood in line with a crowd of people camping out for days on end. Sometimes every paper the applicants brought with them was fake. Some would be chosen, and others were refused with no rhyme or reason.

Biju observed as the people behind the glass asked rude questions: “Can you prove to us you won’t stay?” “What is the purpose of your visit?” The people next to him strategized about how to respond. They planned to say that a hubshi (black person) broke into a shop and killed their sister-in-law, and they had to go to the funeral. A student studying in America advised against playing into this stereotype.

Biju and the others had then been surprised to see an African-American woman behind the counter. The man who had come up with the break-in story was sent to her window, and the others whispered to him to say Mexican instead. He stumbled over his response, and the woman denied his visa.

Biju watched as those who had large homes, wore jeans, and spoke English tried to separate themselves. They could prove that they would not stay in America because their passports had already been stamped in England, Switzerland, and America.

Biju approached the window and answered the questions directly and politely. He lied and said he would not remain in America because he had family, a wife, and a son here, as well as a camera shop. He showed a fake bank statement to prove he had the funds for the trip. His visa was approved. A man who had been in line behind him called him “the luckiest boy in the whole world.”

Biju had reveled in this title. He walked through a park, chased a cow, and did push-ups in joy. The next day, he sent a telegram to the cook. His father was overjoyed, as was Sai, who knew that with Biju in America, the cook would give his affection to her.

A little over three years after Biju received his visa, he slips on some rotten spinach in the Ghandi Café and his knee pops. He asks Harish-Harry to get a doctor. Harish-Harry exclaims that doctors are too expensive, and Biju responds that it’s Harish-Harry’s responsibility because it happened in his kitchen.

Harish-Harry is outraged. He yells at Biju, saying that he has taken him in without papers, housed him, and now he is threatening to make him pay. Biju retorts that without the staff living like pigs, his business wouldn’t survive, because he pays them nothing. Harish-Harry finally calms down and tells him that he should go home to India to get medical attention, and then come back if he wants to.

After two weeks, Biju is able to walk with a stick. Two more weeks, and he is no longer in pain—but he continues to be troubled by the specter of getting a green card. One night, Biju wakes up and his friend complains that he sounds like a cement mixer grinding his teeth. His friend then sets a garbage can with a rat inside it on fire.

Saeed Saeed runs into Biju on the street, and now he speaks much better English and owns twenty-five pairs of shoes. Biju, on the other hand, has been cultivating self-pity. He almost cries over finding a dead insect in a bag of basmati rice that had come from India, because it mirrored his own journey.  Biju remembers what the cook had said: stay in America as long as possible, make money, and don’t come back.