The Shadow Lines

As Tridib tells them about the Price family, including their attractive daughter, May, the Narrator bursts in and confronts him about the lie. He tells everyone that he saw Tridib at home one month earlier. As he tells everyone that Tridib was away on a secret archaeology project, everyone laughs. Tridib does not seem annoyed with the Narrator, but he leaves. After Tridib leaves, the Narrator is furious with himself for revealing his secrets. But the other customers tell him that Tridib lies constantly and never to believe him. They say he has never been outside of the city. The Narrator thinks about Tridib’s story about leaving Calcutta in 1939 and tells them that they are all wrong.

The Narrator remembers that two years later, he actually met May Price when she visited Calcutta. Seventeen years after that, he saw her again in London when he was there working on a research grant. He finds her in an orchestra hall where she is playing the oboe with the musicians. He remembers that during her Calcutta visit years earlier he used to sneak into her room to listen to her practice the recorder. After the orchestra performance, she invites him to come home with her for dinner.

The Narrator reflects that his grandmother was wrong about Tridib. Tridib hated gossip and was actually a recluse, not a socialite. In fact, all of his positive memories about Tridib are from when they were alone. The Tridib he saw in the streets or tea houses had often seemed to have a completely different personality from the Tridib he knew when it was just the two of them.

He remembers talking about Tridib with Tridib’s niece, Ila, when the two of them were 16 years old. Tridib used to amaze them with his knowledge of the world, and of the pyramids, and of the sadistic rites African tribes would perform on children as they were initiated into adulthood. The Narrator recalls that later, in London, Ila was always impatient with him when he was fascinated by things he had never seen, such as subways or escalators.

The Narrator thinks about Tridib’s imagination and intelligence, and how it made him feel as if he would never be able to see, experience, or know anything as well as Tridib did. During their visit to London, he tried to explain this to Ila. Ila feels that his admiration is misplaced. What is happening in the moment is what is most real to her.

He remembers that Tha’mma told him a story about when she was a college student. There had been a bearded boy in class with her who always sat at the back of the class. One day, a group of armed policemen entered and surrounded the class. Tha’mma gives a lengthy history of the various terrorist movements and factions of that time in her life.

The lecturer was forced to leave the classroom. A policeman drew a pistol and looked at every student, finally settling on the bearded boy. They took him away. Later they learned that, allegedly, he had been part of a terrorist cell that had recruited him to assassinate an English diplomat. She never saw the boy again, but she heard that he had been deported to a famous prison in the Andaman Islands.

Tha’mma gives another lengthy lesson about terrorism at the time. She says that part of her had always wished to be a revolutionary of the sort who would take up a pistol for a cause.

The Narrator remembers a time when he was nine years old. He, Tridib, Ila, and Lizzy-Missy went for a drive to Mayadebi’s house. When they arrive, a cluster of family members surround them. Ila takes the Narrator and they sneak into the house, hiding in a room where a huge object is covered with a sheet. Ila removes the sheet, revealing a massive table. Tridib once told the Narrator that his father had purchased it and brought it back from London, but it was so large it had to be shipped in pieces. Ila asks him to get under the table with her. She says she wants to play a game, the same game she plays with someone named Nick. She says that Nick is Mrs. Price’s son, and May’s brother. The Narrator interrogates her about Nick’s size, hair, and clothing style. He is obviously jealous.

Afterwards, the Narrator becomes obsessed with imagining Nick, and how he imagines that Ila behaves when she is around him. In reality, he knows nothing about Nick except for a snippet of a story that his father tells him later. The Narrator’s father visited the Price family when Nick was 13. All he remembers about the boy was that he said he wanted to be just like his grandfather, about whom little was known according to the Narrator’s father. Tridib knows more about him, however, and is happy to tell the Narrator what he can. The grandfather, Lionel Tresawsen, had been a prolific inventor and great traveler. He attended séances conducted by a Russian medium, and was a member of the Theosophical Society in Calcutta. After Tridib finishes talking about him, Nick’s aspiration to be like his ambitious, adventurous grandfather makes sense.

The Narrator meets Nick 17 years after hiding under the table with Ila. In London, he meets Ila and Robi at a hostel. Ila says that they need to go meet Nick at a metro station. Nick is not the dashing, broad-shouldered, intriguing figure that has tormented the Narrator’s imagination. Nick is average height and looks to be aging prematurely. The Narrator begins to show off, trying to impress Nick with his knowledge of the city and its history. Robi interrupts him and says that his facts are wrong. The Narrator protests: He is repeating what Tridib told him. Nick has recently returned from Kuwait and tells them of his business ambitions. He says there is far more money to be made in London. At the end of their walk, they arrive at the Price’s house.

Mrs. Price meets them outside and says she is glad to finally meet the Narrator. She takes them into a large, sunny room. The Narrator realizes that he has seen it before. Tridib has shown him pictures of it. One of the pictures included men named Dan, Snipe, and Mike. Tridib had met Dan when he was young, and Dan had been writing for a left-leaning newspaper that sympathized with Trotsky. Tridib believed that Dan must have been Lionel’s political mentor. Mike had been an Irish drunk who had taken an immediate dislike to Shaheb, Tridib’s father.

Lionel Tresawsen is in the middle of the photograph. The Narrator remembers hearing that Lionel had injured his arm badly. He claimed that he had been in a motorcycle accident in France. Mrs. Price had not believed him, but could not explain why. When Lionel returned to England he had looked terrible. Eventually, he had regained his spirits and started working for Victor Gollancz, a publisher who ran a book club called the Left Book Club.

A woman named Francesca Halevy is standing between Dan and Lionel. Mrs. Price says that Francesca lived in a house with the three men, a fact of which she obviously does not approve. She says that Francesca was too worldly and brilliant.

Mrs. Price continues to give them a tour of her home. Nick teases the Narrator and asks if he can guide them through the house as well as he was able to in the streets. The Narrator closes his eyes and recites the layout of the house, to everyone’s astonishment. He remembers that when he and Ila had been under the table in this house, she had explained the layout to him and had drawn it in the dust beneath the table. But when she had rearranged the position of some of the rooms, the Narrator had grown agitated. He said that it could not be a real house unless drawn correctly. Ila had asked him where they should put the room for Magda. Magda was her doll, but she said it would be the name of their baby, as they pretended to plan a future for when they were married. Ila took off her dress and said that she was changing. The Narrator touched her ribs and felt a vague arousal that he had not understood yet. Ila then sent him out from under the table to pretend that he had gone to work. When she invited him back under the table, they pretended that it was the future and Magda had just come home from school after being bullied by a girl named Denise. In Ila’s version, Nick Price appeared and dragged Denise off of Magda, who had just punched her. Ila had then burst into tears and come out from under the table.

Three years later, the Narrator tells May the story. She tells him that Ila was telling the story of something that had actually happened to her, not Magda. But when Ila had been attacked by Denise, Nick had not stopped to help her. Nick had come home from school early that day and had not been involved at all. May’s theory is that Nick did not want to be seen walking with Ila because she was an Indian. Ila had never told them the complete story of what happened. May encourages the Narrator not to think harshly of Nick. He had been a child, with a child’s fears, and would have handled the situation differently if it had happened when he was grown.

Many years later, the Narrator tells his grandmother the story. She says that it was Ila’s mother’s fault that it happened, and that Ila—because she is an Indian—had had no right to be there. At the time, Ila, now grown, was studying at the University College in London, pursuing a History degree. But the grandmother still insists that she has no right to be in London. She says that London is only for those who fought for the creation of England, just as India is for those who fought for India. His grandmother believes that if people leave their native countries, they will lose their true identities. The next morning she tells the Narrator that Ila only went to England for money. He protests laughingly. He tells her that Ila has nothing. She lives simply and spends her free time going to demonstrations and acting in radical plays for Indian immigrants to London.

He remembers that one year prior to that, Ila had visited Calcutta in the summer. The visit had been sudden. His grandmother told the Narrator and his mother about Ila’s visit, and Ila had arrived an hour later. Ila looked exotic to the Narrator. She had cut her hair short and was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. Robi was due to leave for Darjeeling a few days later. The day before his departure Ila said they should throw a party for him. Robi said it was too hot, but Ila convinced them to go out in the heat.

The Narrator remembers that he and Ila were both confused by the reports they heard about the deference and respect Robi enjoyed in college. Robi was not particularly skilled at anything. In hindsight, the Narrator understands that Robi had been fearless and decisive. Those traits, combined with a willingness to ferociously argue his own viewpoints when necessary, had been the source of his appeal. For instance, when a student strike was proposed, Robi was the only one who refused to attend their meetings. When union leaders threatened to beat him, he was glad for the simplicity of possibly settling the matter with a physical contest. But they relented, not Robi. The strike was called off.

Ila takes them to the Grand Hotel’s nightclub for Robi’s party. He is uncomfortable. Robi views the nightclub as a symbol of bourgeois values. A singer, Miss Jennifer, appears on a small stage and says that it is time for everyone to begin dancing. Robi says that he will not allow Ila to dance. She dares him to stop her and goes to ask a businessman to dance.

Robi follows her, pushes the businessman, pays a waiter, grabs Ila by the collar, and drags her outside. He tells her that she can behave however she wants in England, but that “girls do not behave like that here. I won’t allow it” (64). She gets in a cab and yells that this is why she lives in England: because she wants to be free.

After telling his grandmother the story, she still does not believe him. She says that Ila’s freedom is that of a “whore.” She only wants to be alone to do as she pleases. Then she asks the Narrator why he is always defending Ila. He leaves without answering her. Days later, before he leaves to return to college, the Narrator visits his grandmother, who has grown quite sick. She says she knows that he has been visiting sex workers in Delhi. He leaves immediately, feeling as if he has never truly known who his grandmother is.

Two months later he receives a telegram from his parents, informing him that his grandmother has died. He is angry that his parents did not inform him in time for him to return for her cremation. Two days later he is summoned to the dean’s office at the college. The dean has a letter claiming that the Narrator has been visiting prostitutes. The letter is from his grandmother. He tells the dean that it is not true, and the dean agrees to drop the matter. As he leaves, the Narrator wonders how his grandmother knew that he had actually visited several prostitutes with his friends, and he feels shame over lying to the dean. He also feels that his grandmother must have suspected that he was in love with Ila.

Over the next couple of months, he often walks to Ila’s house to visit with her and her roommates. Nick is often there as well, and the Narrator always notices how well-dressed he is. One night Ila suggests they improve the Narrator’s wardrobe. Days later they meet at a neighborhood called Brick Lane. It is a Bengali neighborhood full of Hindi shops and people. The Narrator did not know Brick Lane existed, and he is embarrassed. He wanted Nick to think he knew all about London, but Nick was the one who knew how to get to Brick Lane. Ila is paying too much attention to Nick and the Narrator gets angry and starts a political argument with her. He says that she has no idea how the world truly works. She takes Nick’s arm and leaves, telling him that he needs to call the next time he decides to drop by her house. It appears she has chosen Nick over him.

Two weeks later, he visits the Price family and Ila on Christmas Eve. Ila tells him that she has been offered a job with the Save the Children Fund. Nick, who is drunk, interrupts. He begins talking about his missed business opportunities in Kuwait. May angrily tells him that she does not want to hear any more of his lies about Kuwait. Nick leaves the table. The nature of the lies May is accusing him of is unclear. When the Narrator prepares to leave, they all notice that there is a blizzard outside. They will all have to spend the night there. The Narrator and Ila go down to the cellar to get bedding. While they are in the cellar, Ila talks about how hot it is down there and removes her blouse. The Narrator touches her bare shoulder and she turns to face him. When she sees the aroused look on his face, she says she is sorry, and that if she had known, she never would have behaved this way. Then she goes up to talk to Nick. The suggestion is that she is suddenly aware that the Narrator is in love with her, and she never knew.