Such a Long Journey

“So Gustad quickly decided that while the music was good and the glittering icons and sumptuous vestments were highly impressive, he preferred the sense of peaceful mystery and individual serenity that prevailed in the fire-temple.”

Gustad is openminded and enjoys experiences based in various traditions. He absorbs Malcolm’s lessons about buying beef at the market and appreciates the experiences of the Catholic church Malcolm shares with him. However, Gustad is firmly grounded in the traditions and beliefs of his own upbringing. He believes you cannot change beliefs like you can change your clothes.

“There was something patently ungrateful about the transaction, a lack of good taste in whoever was responsible for such a pointless, wasteful finish: beautiful colourful creatures, full of life and fun, hidden under the drab soil of the compound.”

This passage describes a young Darius trying to raise beautiful, small creatures as pets, such as tropical fish and lovebirds. The creatures all died and were buried in the dry earth, making Darius aware of the profound unfairness of life. Death isn’t the way beauty and love should be rewarded.

“Mixing memory and sorrow, he thought fondly of the old days.”

Gustad has kept many family heirlooms from his childhood. In moments of stress, he is pulled into reveries of bittersweet nostalgia that reinforce his adherence to tradition.

“Names are so important.”

This statement sums up the moment Gustad realizes that Dinshawji is not just a joker but a person of deep insight. Gustad has brushed off the concern that the government is renaming roads and landmarks, feeling it might keep it from meddling in more serious things. Dinshawji points out the truth of the matter: by changing all the place names, the government is erasing his memories of who and where he is.

“He did not use it very often: heirlooms were special, he felt, to be cherished and handed down, not used up like a box of cocoa or a bottle of hair oil.”

This quote refers to Gustad using his grandmother’s ivory-handled paper knife to open a letter from Jimmy. It reinforces Gustad’s connection to the past and to tradition. If he used the paper knife often, it would likely break, snapping the direct line between Gustad and his childhood.

“The enemy was at the border, that Pakistani drunkard Yahya was cooking something in partnership with China, and fools like her son went around saying rubbish about the Prime Minister.”

This is Gustad’s thought as he argues with Sohrab about whether Jimmy ought to have joined the Indian Secret Service. In the moment, Gustad thinks more danger is coming from outside sources than from within. Also, we know from Gustad’s conversations with Dinshawji that he thinks the prime minister’s government is problematic. Here he adopts a different point of view to exaggerate his differences with Sohrab.

“Yes, there they were, underlined in red, all five repetitions: ‘Put money in thy purse.’”

Jimmy’s instructions to Gustad contain a line from Shakespeare’s Othello. When Iago says that line, he is using his influence to better himself with no regard for others. Here it’s an unsubtle allusion to the fact that Jimmy is sending Gustad a bag of money. It’s also a hint of the betrayal Gustad will feel in Jimmy’s actions.

“With holes in my shoes I went to work, so we could buy almonds to sharpen his brain.”

Here we have Gustad making an often-heard parental complaint. He has sacrificed his own comfort to ensure Sohrab will have a better future. When the time comes, Sohrab chooses a different path, and Gustad is incredulous and disappointed. It also speaks to parents’ amplified sense of their children’s gifts. To Gustad, Sohrab was never just a regular kid but a superstar.

“He never ceased to wonder at the vinca’s endurance, surviving in the small dusty patch, year after year, despite the fenders of cars that ripped and clawed at its stems, or children who tore wantonly at its blooms.”

The novel’s characters must strive to exist and thrive in their tough environment, just as the vinca plant survives in dry soil with constant obstacles.

“His house is white, but his pyjamas become brown every night.”

This is Dinshawji making an insightful prediction about how the political situation will unfold. Nixon, he points out, is backing Pakistan and hoping for an Indian/Pakistani war over the territory in East Pakistan because the US doesn’t like Indira Gandhi’s relationship with the Russians. Dinshawji comments that Nixon soils his pajamas with worry over the India/Russia connection.

“But it was always a visit to Dr. Paymaster that brought him to the neighbourhood, and, over time, illness and the forbidden pleasures became entwined in his mind.”

When Gustad takes Roshan to the doctor, he remembers sneaking off school to hear Peerbhoy Paanwalla’s lewd stories as a boy. The emotions those stories engendered have woven together with memories of visiting the doctor, creating feelings of thrill and revulsion in Gustad’s heart.

“Let me tell you, it’s more difficult to be a jovial person all the time than to be a quiet, sickly one.”

Dinshawji reflects on how hard he works to keep up his joking, comical antics at the bank so that no one will suspect he is very ill. When Gustad reprimands him for his over-the-top behavior toward Laurie, Dinshawji understands it’s time to drop his mask and let his external behavior match his internal state.

“The journey—chanced, unplanned, solitary—was the thing to relish.”

The pavement artist reflects that working on Gustad’s black wall makes him crave permanence. This creates an uneasy tension for him, as his work requires moving from place to place. He has trained himself to crave the movement, the journey, as part of his process.

“Salt and pepper, ginger and garlic, came to Gustad’s mind, what he used to tell Sohrab about propaganda and falsehoods.”

Here the reader is reassured about Gustad’s intelligence and his ability to separate what is true from what is suspicious. He understands propaganda and the need to filter what you read in the press through your own intelligent analysis. The fact that Gustad has this skill makes the reader appreciate his internal conflict when trying to decide what is true about Jimmy’s situation.

“Why did miracles and misfortunes always come hand in hand.”

Gustad and Dilnavaz rely on miracles to help their family overcome misfortune. It’s human nature to seek balance between the bad and the good, and needing a miracle reflects the extent of the misfortune experienced. When life is hard, more help is needed. Gustad and Dilnavaz seek this help through religion and superstitious ritual.

“If it had not been for his child’s sake, nothing could have induced Gustad to endure the sights and smells of Crawford Market; it still repulsed him as much as ever.”

When compared to Gustad’s trip to buy the chicken at the beginning of the novel, this line shows how far Gustad’s morale has fallen. Yet when he does next go to the market, he is reunited with Malcolm, which leads to the moment of deep peace Gustad experiences at Mount Mary.

“Even with proper tongues, words are hard to find.”

Gustad remembers being so moved by the music in Malcolm’s childhood home that he can’t find the words to describe the feeling. For Gustad, the sounds were like the beauty of prayer, something he responded to deep inside his being.

“Death gets through every time. Death can choose to be prompt or fashionably late.”

Death is the ultimate journey the characters will take, and it’s one that can’t be planned ahead of time. We also have no knowledge of how and when our death will come, nor can we predict the death of our loved ones.

“Would this long journey be worth it? Was any journey ever worth the trouble?”

This is Gustad’s reflection as he travels to Delhi to see Jimmy. He’s worried that his doubts about Jimmy’s character will somehow be vindicated. Once Gustad is with Jimmy and hears his story, all doubts fade and their reconciliation is nearly automatic.

“Besides, was there a person alive who, at one time or another, did not find it difficult to disbelieve completely in things supernatural?”

Seeking help from outside forces when dealing with stress, emotional threat, or loss is a universal human experience. Although Dilnavaz is a traditional figure who follows the tenets of her religion, she looks to folk magic to boost the chances that crises will be resolved.

“Cobweb wreaths and layers of dust made it difficult to identify objects, except for the ghostly furniture.”

Here Dilnavaz and Tehmul enter the locked rooms of Miss Kutpitia’s apartment and her grieving heart. The bedrooms, left untouched after the death of Miss Kutpitia’s loved ones, are a perfect metaphor for grief stuck in an unresolved state, growing dust and cobwebs and preventing the grieving person from moving forward.

“In short, no effort was spared to inform the country of its invincibility, unity, and high morale.”

Gustad is aware that propaganda comes from all sides. It isn’t true, of course, that India is invincible, unified, or of unequivocally high morale, but governments routinely stoke feelings of nationalism in times of war. Many characters see the ways local governments are letting citizens down and recognize the difference between what the government says is true and what is actually true.

“Proud and strong-willed, she thought. Another Gustad.”

Dilnavaz sees what Gustad does not: that he and Sohrab are cut from the same cloth. That she reserves this direct observation until just before Gustad and Sohrab reconcile makes it a tender moment that reminds the reader how cyclical stories and families are.