Welcome to the first discussion for our India read - A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. Hope you have enjoyed the first section!

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Today we are looking at the prologue to chapter II - For Dreams to Grow. Next week we will discuss chapter III - In a Village by a River. Link to the schedule is here, with links to all discussions as well, and the link to the marginalia is here

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For some background info, here is a link to the Wikipedia page about the Partition of India, The Emergency (India) and about Parsis

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Discussion questions are in the comments below but feel free to add your own!

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Chapter summary

We start off in 1975 where we meet three passengers on a train – Maneck, Omprakash and his uncle Ishvar. They all get off the train and discover they are going to meet the same person – Dina Dalai. Maneck is going to rent a room from her for a while, and Om and Ishvar are tailors looking for work.

We go back to learn of Dina’s childhood. Her father was a devoted and dedicated GP who went off on a trip to work in remote villages, where he died from a cobra bite. Her mother took the news well at first but slowly retreated into herself, leaving her older brother Nusswan in charge.

Nusswan dismissed the staff and eventually Dina was forced to do all the work around the house, to the detriment of her school work. Dina and Nusswan clashed constantly. Mrs Shroff died a few years after her husband. As soon as Dina was of age, Nusswan began to encourage her to get married. She eventually met someone herself – Rustom Dalai. Eventually they marry and move into his flat. However during their three year anniversary party, Rustom goes out for ice cream but gets hit by a lorry driver while on his bike and dies.

Dina returns to stay with Nusswan for a while, but eventually returns to her apartment. She learns to sew to support herself, though Nusswan often has to help her out. Dina refuses Nusswan’s offers to help her get married again. Eventually her eyes go bad and she has to find new work. She sets out to hire two tailors to work for her to supply an American clothing company, and decides to take in a lodger.

Om and Ishvar start to work for Dina. They get off to a good start, but Om starts to become discontented, feeling they are getting a bad deal from Dina. Soon though, the landlord is on to Dina for operating a business out of residential premises.