2. The spy is a schoolteacher who hates his job in Shahkot and
hopes to win fame as an undercover agent. Sampath Chawla is
his first assignment from the Branch to Uncover Fraudulent Holy
Men (BUFHM).
The spy hangs around listening to Sampath’s answers to
questions, writing them down in his book and trying to make
sense of them. He grew up in poverty and thinks he will one day
win fame in the papers as an intellectual on TV.
He interprets everything as a fraud because he begins in that
frame of mind. He believes the country is held back by beliefs in
crazy holy men, and he personally wants to champion
intellectualism over religious fraud.
Because he came from a poor background, he likes to identify
with the upper classes. He decides to persecute Sampath
because of the emptiness of his own life, but he traps himself by
falling into Kulfi’s cauldron while spying on her cooking.
3. The Brigadier is head of the local army
post.
He sits on a western style toilet, using his
binoculars for bird watching, which
soothes him.
His goal, more important than his job, is
to spot a green pigeon.
Each morning he methodically washes a
different part of his body.
4. His soldiers seem the least interesting part
of his concerns, but he doesenjoy
shouting at them.
In the crisis, he plans a firing squad to
shoot in the bush and scare off the
monkeys.
5.
6. She seems bored with domestic life and sits
by the window, as though she is in a cage
and would like to escape. She lets Ammaji
run the house. She rarely cooks; only wild
and exotic food will satisfy her. She is a sort
of food artist.
In watching her son’s retreat to the
orchard, she remembers her own youth
when she felt the need to escape. She
knows why he is sitting in a tree; Kulfi and
Sampath are the only ones in the family
who understand one another.
Inspired by what she takes to be Sampath’s
wisdom,she begins finally to cook the
masterpieces that have been in her mind.
7. Pinky Chawla Pinky, the younger sister of Sampath, is a
rather empty-headed teen Indian girl interested in
clothes, appearances, and romance.
She is embarrassed by her brother initially and only
gradually feels sympathy for him. She is pretty and likes
to get her own way; she is not afraid to ride the bus and
stab aggressive men with her hairpin. She is a dramatic
and emotional young woman who insists that men follow
her around.
She luxuriates in her romantic despair under Sampath’s
tree. She pursues the Hungry Hop boy, not sure in her
adolescent confusion whether she likes him or not. She
bites through his ear but is not arrested because she
isthe Baba’s sister. She pursues the Hungry Hop boy until
he agrees to run away with her but scorns himwhen he is
unable to live up to her demands
8. Mr. R. K. Chawla is Sampath’s prosaic father;he has
the opposite personality of Sampath or Kulfi. He is a
finicky and exact bureaucrat, the head clerk of the
Reserve Bank of Shahkot.
He does not like irregularities in life, so he
hardlyknows what to make of his wild wife and son.
Early on, he gives up trying to influence his crazy wife
and tries to mold Sampath, which proves equally
impossible.
He sees only the materialistic aspect of the
situation, yet he believes himself to be honest
He feels vulnerable in all the hullabaloo and comes
up
with the final plan to catch the monkeys.
9. Ammaji is Mr. Chawla’s mother and
Sampath’s grandmother. She takes over
the duties of her son’s wife, since Kulfi
seems to be incompetent.
She represents the older traditional
habits and lore of India, while her son is
the modern trained colonial servant.
She defends Sampath to the other family
since he is proud of her grandson’s
success, which she once predicted.
10. The D.C., or District Collector, comes from
Delhi to the backwater of Shahkot as his first
posting. He is quiet and firm in his ideals, and is
still young to government service. He is thin and
weak.
His father is influential in the Indian
Administrative Service. He is afraid of getting a
black mark on his record if he doesn’t handle
the crisis in Shahkot carefully without offending
any group.
Each official pushes his own plan to get rid of
the monkeys in hopes of winning glory.
11. The Chief Medical Officer is a
hypochondriac ,worried about his ulcers.
When they flare up, he drinks onion juice.
He does not want to deal with the monkey
crisis and passes it off to the biology
department at the university. He is a satire
on the Indian civil servant, more concerned
with his own benefits than with helping the
public.
Hewants to get promoted to get out of
Shahkot, and proposes to solve the monkey
problem by revoking all liquor
licenses, which is a very unpopular move.
12. In Constantakis, S., & Jordan, A. D.
(2012). Novels for students: Presenting
analysis, context and criticism on
commonly studied novels. Detroit: Gale.
Pandey, B. (2001). Indian women
novelists in English. New Delhi: Sarup &
Sons.