38 pages 1 hour read

Amitav Ghosh

The Shadow Lines

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1988

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Part 2

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 2: “Coming Home”

Page 141-160 Summary

The Narrator reflects on his grandmother. In 1962, he is 10 years old and she, at 60, has just retired from teaching at a girls’ school. One change she had made at the school was that each girl would learn how to cook something from a part of the country other than the one in which she was raised. On the day of her retirement, each girl brings her a dish prepared in her honor. On the day after her retirement, the Narrator says that his grandmother is happier than he has ever seen her. But days later, he comes home and hears his crying mother talking to his father. She says that the grandmother nags her constantly.

One afternoon, as he is walking home with his friend Montu, they think they see a man in a turban in the window of his grandmother’s room. The Narrator rushes inside and goes up to her room. He finds his grandmother inside with a hot towel wrapped around her hair. His mother explains to him that it is a treatment—his grandmother thinks she is going bald. Soon, his grandmother starts visiting the school again, complaining about how everything is being handled in her absence.

Related Titles

By Amitav Ghosh

Plot Summary

logo

Flood of Fire

Amitav Ghosh

Flood of Fire

Amitav Ghosh

Study Guide

logo

Gun Island

Amitav Ghosh

Gun Island

Amitav Ghosh

Study Guide

logo

In an Antique Land

Amitav Ghosh

In an Antique Land: History in the Guise of a Traveler's Tale

Amitav Ghosh

Plot Summary

logo

River of Smoke

Amitav Ghosh

River of Smoke

Amitav Ghosh

Study Guide

logo

Sea of Poppies

Amitav Ghosh

Sea of Poppies

Amitav Ghosh

Study Guide

logo

The Calcutta Chromosome

Amitav Ghosh

The Calcutta Chromosome

Amitav Ghosh

Study Guide

logo

The Glass Palace

Amitav Ghosh

The Glass Palace

Amitav Ghosh

Study Guide

logo

The Great Derangement

Amitav Ghosh

The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable

Amitav Ghosh

Study Guide

logo

The Hungry Tide

Amitav Ghosh

The Hungry Tide

Amitav Ghosh