“Like his boyhood heroes—the Scarlet Pimpernel, Zorro, Jhanda Singh the Invisible—he was a crusader, but one who tried to address the problems of the world with pen and ink instead of sword and gun and fist.” 

Early in the novel, the idea of what a hero is, which alludes to the book’s title, appears symbolically in Sripathi’s desire to “fight” injustice through the pen. However, Sripathi’s “crusade” quickly reveals itself as the charade of an angry and frustrated old man with the impotence of his life. The hero’s walk is not in Sripathi’s letters-to-the-editor, not solely, rather Sripathi becomes heroic later on when he learns to forgive, deal with his past, and become the grandfather Nandana needs in her life.

“But this son of his had only ever been a disappointment.”

Sripathi is speaking here about his son, Arun. Ironically, Sripathi is disappointed in Arun when there is plenty about Arun that could make a father proud: Arun is working on a doctorate; he is passionate about life and bettering society and the world. The irony extends beyond just this, however. Sripathi is disappointed in Arun because Arun isn’t going about working in the conventional way, and his not having a job is chiefly not making Sripathi’s life easier, which is the main reason Sripathi cares whether or not Arun has a conventional job. Furthermore, Sripathi, without realizing it, is perpetuating a sad family tradition where the parents are simply disappointed in their children when their children decide to take a different path in life than the one their parents laid out for them.