The Inheritance of Loss – Kiran Desai

Book review

The independence from the colonial rule made us happy. But post
independence, we have a reason to be sad and worried. Kiran Desai
highlights this prominently in The Inheritence of Loss.

The story is setup in Kalimpong in the Himalayas in the post colonial

era of 1986 when ‘a great amount of warring, bartering had occurred;
between Nepal, England, Tibet, India, Sikkim, Bhutan Darjeeling stolen
from here, Kalimpong plucked from there’ and ‘it was the Indian-
Nepalese this time, fed up of being treated like minority in a place
where they were in majority. They wanted their own country or at least
their own state, in which to manage their own affairs.’

The story is build up by characters representing a specific genre of the

post colonial period in India. Jemubhai Patel- the foreign studied Indian
judge, who served the British and then left to live in a non - British
India on retirement and is still stuck to the past. The cook, who in a
way represents the poverty-stricken India who’ve sent the sons of the
soil to be tormented in alien lands. There is Biju, the cook’s son who’s a
part of the illegal Indian brigade in New York and trying hard to earn,
jumping from one job to another - a thousand till the book ends. Then
there is the sixteen year old Sai, Jemubhai’s orphaned granddaughter
who is representative of the precarious present. And there is the Nepali
Gyan, Sai’s tutor and love interest, who is caught up between his love
for Sai and the Nepalese rebellion.

The story moves at a fairly fast pace from the start with Ms. Desai
taking to the past and back to the future. The story keeps shuttling
between Jemubhai’s Kalimpong and Biju’s New York. And this happens
so easily that you don’t know when you go in the past and when do
you actually come back.

There is no formal introduction to the characters in the start. So the

characters of Jemubhai, Sai, the cook, Biju and Gyan get rounded as
the story proceeds. Desai introduces a number of characters in the
story which make it lively like Lola and Noni, Uncle Potty and others in
Kalimpong and a notable character of Saeed Saeed in New York along
with many others.

There is a lot of detailing done which is why it becomes difficult to keep

a track of the plot. Even the shuttling between the past and the
present makes you wonder where the story is going. Nonetheless, it is
an interesting read. Every time the story gets boring Desai smokes life
in it.

Thus, The Inheritance of Loss touches the sensitive issues during those
times such as poverty, illegal immigration, and the problems of the
expatriates returning back to India with a British mind. It really makes
us think, ‘have we inherited a loss?’

S.Y.B.M.M.
Roll No. – 38