A Burning

Jivan is buoyed with hope because Lovely will testify on her behalf in court. Jivan knows that if anyone can convince the world of Jivan’s innocence, it is Lovely, who is earnest and radiates kindness. But Jivan decides not to tell Purnendu about Lovely and instead continues the story of her childhood. Jivan describes her family’s eventual move to the city, where bus drivers refused service to her father because of his bad back, where the house her mother was promised turned out to be a sort-of house deep in a slum, and where everything was fast-paced and chaotic. Jivan’s father fought through his pain, and Jivan watched as her mother struggled to make her breakfast business venture profitable for the family. But Jivan was nonetheless thrilled by her new city life, which exposed her to many different classes of people. Though her family’s life in the city was difficult, Jivan hoped that she would discover new opportunities to change her family’s prospects.

PT Sir wakes up one day and refuses to eat the breakfast his wife makes him. He believes he deserves a better, more manly breakfast. He goes off to buy his breakfast, and when he sees a stray dog, he thinks about how he “has sent a dozen men to jail, does anybody know that? So this street dog better beware of him, or he can have it locked up in a snap of his fingers” (139). Another morning, PT Sir wakes up to an enormous storm, and at work teachers and students go to uncomfortable lengths to avoid the flooding streets around the building. Over lunch, PT Sir’s fellow faculty members ask about his connections to powerful people; they ask if he can help get the school’s piping fixed. PT Sir successfully gets a special exception for help for his school: its pipes are fixed and while other schools “drown.”

Mr. Debnath tells Lovely that she is advancing ahead of the class. He is writing a script and wants her to play a role in his movie. Lovely is elated that Mr. Debnath notices her talent and wants to include her in new opportunities.

In one of her meetings with Purnendu, Jivan admits that poverty nearly drove her to commit a crime—but only once. When she was young, she reached into a woman’s purse to take her wallet. Even while taking the wallet, Jivan knew she wouldn’t be able to keep it—her moral code won over her destitution. The woman caught her with the wallet, and instead of getting angry or calling the police, the woman asked Jivan if she was hungry. She gave Jivan food and then introduced herself as an employee of an organization that helped poor students earn scholarships to good schools. That is how Jivan ended up at PT Sir’s school. At the school, she worked hard and kept to herself; Jivan was lonely but learning. No one else in her slum knew how to read or write, much less in English. She admits that school was not easy for her, but her work ethic helped her succeed.

PT Sir receives a phone call from his wife telling him of the death of the Jana Kalyan Party leader. He rushes to the deceased’s house, where mourners, reporters, and fellow party leaders are assembled. He thinks he should go home, but he also the leaders to see the flowers he has brought to pay his respects. He runs in to the assistant who assigns him court cases and provides him with “party gifts” for his service. The assistant helps push PT Sir through the crowd, and PT Sir is again awed by his status and pleased to see others looking at him, wondering who he could be to be so important.

During the celebration of Durga Puja, Lovely and her sister hijras travel on trains to perform. Looking forward to her possible new role in Mr. Debnath’s film, Lovely worries that one of her fellow acting students might see her in her job as beggar-performer. Nevertheless, Lovely observes the diverse people on the boat to draw inspiration for her future roles.

Lovely receives an invitation to Azad’s wedding. Although she was the one to convince him to marry a woman who could give him honor and children, Lovely is sad to see how beautiful his bride is. Lovely approaches the couple to give her hijra blessing and congratulations; she forces herself through the party despite how painful it is to see Azad with someone else. Lovely ponders the strangeness in life, reflecting, “My love for Azad, I am telling myself, is existing in some other world, where there is no society, no god. In this life we were never getting to know that other world, but I am sure it is existing. There, our love story is being written” (156).

Later, Lovely goes to an office that makes demo videos for actors auditioning for roles. Although the demo maker is rude to her and makes her act out odd and uninteresting roles, Lovely stays professional and taps in to her best acting skills. The demo maker charges Lovely too much, but she finally has a demo CD to pass on to Mr. Debnath’s film producers. When she returns home from her demo session, she meets Gobind, Jivan’s lawyer. He asks her to come to the courthouse to testify for Jivan, and she agrees. This involves filling out a form, but she is unable to because it’s in English, so Gobind invites her to a café to help her prepare the form.

Bimala Pal becomes the new Jana Kalyan Party leader. The party sends PT Sir on a duty that bewilders him. He is sent to Chalnai, where schools are set in rural areas. His job is to convince educators there to take the students’ physical education seriously for their mental and physical well-being. The job confuses PT Sir because rural children have more space to run anyway. He later tells his wife he suspects the task was a test, though he doesn’t know what for or whether he passed.

Gobind visits Jivan to discuss her case while she is washing Americandi’s clothes. Gobind tells her that he found Lovely, but Jivan reminds him it was actually her mother who found Lovely while Gobind took his time doing nothing about it. Nonetheless, Gobind is happy that there is a positive shift in the case.

Later, Jivan tells Purnendu about PT Sir. He asks if it’s the same PT Sir who has recently been tied to Bimala Pal, but Jivan no longer knows about events outside the prison. Her story about PT Sir is a nice one: He helped feed her, encouraged her in sports, and even asked her to attend a cricket camp. He provided her with the comfort of care and attention, and Jivan suspects it was because as a man in an all-female school, he knows what it is to feel like an outsider.

Jivan then tells Purnendu about two important moments in her young life. The first was when she attended a schoolmate’s birthday and discovered that she lived in a wonderful home with her own space and desk, which inspired Jivan to become middle class. The second was when her mother came home one night after being attacked for her food and physical difference. The humiliation that Jivan shares with her mother makes her despair over her life in a cruel world.

Brijesh and Raju go to a new mall. They are thrilled by its lights, air conditioning, and overall modernization. They line up to go through metal detectors but are thwarted when security asks for the admission fee of 50 rupees. Brijesh and Raju point out that the woman in front of them was not asked for a fee, but no matter how much they argue, they are not admitted. They leave without a word to one another, unable to express the shame they both feel. They enjoy a snack together then go back to their manual labor.

PT Sir attends court to act as a witness for his last case. The man accused of trading illegal goods is none other than Azad, who tries to explain that he doesn’t know if the goods he sells are counterfeit or not because he is not the boss. PT Sir testifies that he bought fake shoes from Azad, but Azad says he’s never seen PT Sir before. The judge finds Azad guilty and fines him an impossible fee. Azad must either pay the fee or serve a jail term.