Claire, Cleo and Natalie BTBF book presentation
Summary:
Claire: Chapter 6:
Zehrunsia renovates her house despite the possible consequences. The Hussain’s are desperate for better hygiene and protection. The airport authorities don’t want the Anawadians to prosper and the worse the hut the better the chances of being relocated into a tiny apartment highrise. Zehrunisa and Fatima (One-Leg) get into a fight due to the renovation (Zehrunisa ordered Abdul to level out the walls of the hut in order to install shelves and accidentally made the wall crumble on Fatimas side, getting sand in her rice). Abdul breaks up the fight as if he is the parent of Zehrunisa. Fatima goes to the police and accuses Zehrunisa of violent assault. (The renovation keeps getting more and more delayed). Asha meets Zehrunisa at the police station and bribes her by asking for 1000 rupees in exchange for her to convince Fatima to drop the entire conflict. Zehrunisa rejects the offer. Then the officer suggests that Zehrunisa beat Fatima so there is never another conflict: “If you don’t beat people like that, you will have to deal with them over and over again.” He promises to handle it if Fatima complains in exchange for money.
Meanwhile back in Anawandi: everyone is frantically working to renovate the Hussains hut before the police get there. Fatima is dressing up and happily dancing to Hindi music. Kehkashan (Zehrunisa’s daughter) doesn’t understand what she could be so happy about and starts a fight. Karam (Zehrunisa’s husband) took matters into his own hand ordering Abdul to beat Fatima but avoids the fight.
Fatima sets herself on fire and her daughter watches. People are saying she will tell the police that the Hussains burned her because she is hindu.
Fatima tells the police that Karam, Abdul and Kehkashan set her on fire. They are arrested but soon the police find out Fatima lied. She instead decides to emphasize the truth, putting the weight of the accusation on Abdul saying he “threatened and throttled her.” The police beat Abdul and try to get him to confess to attempted murder. Him and his father are locked in a jail cell. Abdul describes the jail as “handsome” and “nice” compared to anawandi. Officers interrogate Abdul and Karam, trying to get them to pay a sum of money to avoid a false sentence. (“price of freedom”)
Questions:
According to the author, after Fatima’s accident “she’d started to be treated as a mattering person.” Did Fatima truly burn herself to get back at Zehrunisa? Or did she do it for herself?
(Page 107 par. 4) In a literal sense, the Hussain’s have to pay for their freedom (they must bribe their way out of jail) but on a deeper level, what does the concept “price of freedom” mean and where else does it come up in Behind the Beautiful Forevers?
Cleo: Chapter 7:
Fatima is in the hospital for three days after the burning incident and enjoy being taken care of and paid attention to and plans to tell the police that the Hussains forced her to burn herself because she is a Hindu. Asha tells Fatima that, that is dangerous because it is a lie and there were witnesses. Asha arranges for the Hussains to pay for the cost of Fatima’s hospital bills in exchange for dropping the charges. But it is too late, Fatima already filed the charges. She claims that Karam, Abdul and Kehkashan set her on fire. Karam is arrested and Abdul races to the Police station. There, Noori says that she saw her mother burn herself and the Hussains did not have anything to do with the burning. Fatima then changes her story, and claims Abdul threatened to beat her if she did not set herself on fire, and she felt like she had no other choice than to commit suicide, (which is considered a very terrible crime in Annawandi because of British Colonizers in the past who ended the historical practice of burning themselves alive).
Meanwhile, at the Police station, Abdul is beaten with a leather strap and the officer warns him that if Fatima dies, he will be charged with murder. Zenruhsia cries in the other room. Abdul and Karam are detained in an unofficial cell because the police officers don’t want to fill out official paperwork. They find it nicer than Annawadi. The officers ask Abdul why he would beat a cripple, and he repeats the truth, that he insulted her but he never touched her. They ask Karam how he expects to feed his family from jail. Karam knows that the officers just want money, whether they are guilty or not.
Zenhrusia visits says Fatima now wants 50,000 rupees in exchange for dropping the charges. Officer Thokale says he wants money to spin the case in the Hussain’s favor. Zenhrusia would rather pay Fatima and put her in a private hospital so she will not die publically. Abdul remembers a movie he once watched called “Alive” where the protagonist is put in jail for a crime he did not commit. He never wanted a grand future, he had little dreams and only wanted to live comfortably. Abdul recalls when his mother told him that in the old days, everyone suffered together, where as now nobody would dare to help the hussains. Abdul is periodically beaten until a phonecall between Asha and Thokale occurs, which Abdul overhears. He wonders why Asha would help him and he thinks it is because she has seen his hard work. Karam knows it is because Asha wants to assert power in the police station. Muslim Fakir, a miracle worker, visits Anawandi 4 days after the burning and Kehkashan wants to be blessed before she is arrested. Fatima dies of an infection but her burns are recorded as the official cause of death and Abdul is charged with murder. The only two Muslim women, Kehkashan and Zenhrusia are given Fatima’s burial rights and the Husain boys carry her body to the graveyard past the luxury American hotels. Fatima’s children are sent to an orphanage.
Question: The Husain women took over burial rights and the men had to respectfully carry Fatima’s dead body to the graveyard after she attempted to destroy their lives. Why do you think the Hussains did this in a respectful manner, how could they go through with it? Would you have done the same?
Chapter 8: Natalie:
Chapter eight begins with the start of the monsoon season. During this time, there is less trash because of less airport traffic and a halt in construction. The river rising also creates a problem for the people of Annawadi because of how gross and invasive it is. Money becomes harder to come by forcing many people to struggle. Since Abdul is in jail someone has to take over his job so Mirchi tries to but does not equal his power and struggles to decide the value of much of the trash. Zehrunisa continues to beg for money in order to bail out Abdul. Drama surrounding the fact that Officer Thokale took a bribe begins to take hold among people of Annawadi. Zehrunisa denies that she told anyone about the bribe, but it was clearly her. Bribes and other corrupt activities appear to be very prevalent. Zehrunisa pays off the officers to try Abdul as a child. Abdul is also examined head to toe on a table to be judged on his age. He is then sent to Dongri, a juvenile detention center. Dongri is much nicer and in a middle-class area where people live much better. At Dongri he has a daily bath that he at first resists, a daily exercise, and then chats with the other boys. The conditions are pretty awful, there was even an article written entitled “Dongri is a living hell.” The boys at the end must listen to The Master about Hindu. This makes Abdul reflect on his life and vows then not to steal and to live better.
Questions:
What do you believe the contrast of the rain depictions between the rich and the poor represents? Page 117
Children in Dongri are mainly there due to breaking child labor laws, What does this say about the labor force or child labor in general in India?
