Oktober 01, 2010

Page 203-276

The divorcement between Ashok and Pinky Madam proceeds. She won’t get money from them, because otherwise they would tell the police about the accident that one night.
The Mongoose gets to Delhi again in order to support Ashok at his work, but he also tells Ashok that he has to marry again. It would be a shame for the family, if he’d stay unmarried.
They bribe the minister again and Ashok leaves. Balram thinks several times about stealing one of those bags with money Mr. Ashok and the Mongoose always get to bribe the politicians. He even thinks about killing Mr. Ashok to get the money. He goes to the red-light district to get rid of those bad thoughts. He watches for a girl and without a reason he starts trouble with a paan-seller. He runs away and gets to the book market in Old Delhi. He stays there for the evening checking out books. While he takes a walk after that he sees a buffalo pulling a cart through the streets. He gets bad conscience from that.
The next day Balram wants to make a confession to Mr. Ashok about his thoughts and that he is ashamed by himself, but Mr. Ashok doesn’t listen and gets it wrong, like Balram wants to marry and needs some money for this.
Next day in the morning Balram walks around and gets to the slums. Several man squat there in a row and defecate. He walks around there and when he gets back to Buckingham Tower a boy is waiting for him with a letter. It is Dharam his cousin. The letter he has is from Kusum. She tells Balram to send some money, to take care of the boy, make him become a driver and that she is preparing his wedding. If Balram doesn’t get to Laxmanargh, Kusum will send the girl to Delhi. Balram gets angry and hits the boy right into the face.
Vitiligo-Lips wants 500 Rupees from Balram for not telling Mr. Ashok the truth about where he was the night they drove to the prostitute.
His wish to kill Mr. Ashok gains.
The opposition wins the election and Mr. Ashok has to bribe the new minister. He didn’t bibe him before, because he was sure that the government stays the same. Balram has to drive the ministers’ assistances around. They empty a bottle of Johnnie Walker. As Balram turns home, he smashes the bottle so it gets some spikes, because he wants to use it for killing Mr. Ashok. He puts it into the glove compartment and goes sleeping.
The next day Balram takes Dharam to the zoo. There is a white tiger in that zoo and when Balram stands in front of the cage he faints. After some time he regains consciousness.
After the zoo Balram tells Dharam to write a letter to Kusum. In that letter he tells her that he can’t live in a cage for the rest of his life.
Balram takes Mr. Ashok to several banks again, where he collects 700.00 Rupees. He wants to go to Sheraton, but at half of their way Balram stops and says that something isn’t right with one tire. He has placed the bottle on the ground and tells Mr. Ashok to get out of the car. Balram takes the bottle in his hand and as Ashok takes a look at the tire Balram rams the bottle into his head. First thing he does after hiding the dead body is driving to the train station. He thinks about Dharam and his fate if he’d leave without him and decides to get him.
They go to Bangalore. Balram buys a Toyota Qualis and wants to start a company. He thinks it would be a good idea to offer his services to call center, because their employees have to work late in the night and no bus is driving at that time of the day. Balram calls a company but the woman tells him that there are already companies like his ones. To solve this problem Balram goes to the local police Department and spends some money. The police discovers that most of the drivers of the company have no driving license. So now the way is clear for Balrams start up. After some time he has 16 drivers and 26 vehicles. His business gained its worth up to 10.5 million rupees.
He tells about one accident that happens. A driver had killed a boy on a bicycle by hitting him with the car. He calls the police and goes to the place it happened. The brother of that boy has witnessed the accident and is at a rage at the moment. Balram and the brother go to the police department, but Balram has to expect no punishment, because he pays the police regularly.
Although there is no need to him, he finds out the address of the family and gives them some money and offers a job in his company to their remaining son.
Back at his apartment he thinks about his decisions ad whether they were right, because his family probably had to die because of his doings. He is worried what Dharam will do when he is grown up.
When he is driving around in the city of Bangalore he is excited and tells that he is part of everything that is happening in India. He tells that he would do everything like he has done it, because it is worth to know what it is like to be free and rich.


I was terrified of the situation in the slums of Delhi. In our western World, it is almost not imaginable to squat in one row and start defecating, because everybody has a toilet in his decent home or at least if you aren’t that well situated you can use a public toilet. But in those slums it seems to be quiet usual. This fact can make you angry and sad at the same time. I think that such things are way below the human dignity in any modern society with a democratic political system. Another thing that I found out is, that the government of Delhi has decided to hide those slums behind bamboo bars, so the visitors and athletes don’t see what is going on there.
That shows us how desperate the situation in those slums is. It seems like the government can’t help everybody at the moment. They have rehabilitated areas around the Commonwealth Games village, by building 9000 new houses, but there is still a lot of work to do.