Animal's People

Animal dreams about Zafar struggling to bear the burden of the world on his back. Zafar continues to annoy him by “giving me chances to prove what a good-hearted trustworthy guy I was” (83). As Zafar gives him more and more important tasks, Animal performs them “with greater and greater contempt” (83).

At one of their meetings, Nisha brings a woman whose husband had worked at the factory and never recovered from illnesses sustained from the chemicals. The family grew poorer and poorer before the husband finally passed away. Now the woman is being harassed by a moneylender who has taken her belongings and continues to send men to frighten her into repaying her debts. Nisha weeps hearing the story, for the woman is Hindi and her husband was Muslim, just like Nisha and Zafar. The group collects a large sum of money for the woman, and Animal and Farouq take it to the moneylender.

On the way, Farouq teases Animal about his lust for Elli and Nisha and accuses him of claiming to be an animal so he doesn’t have to follow the “laws of society” (87). Animal explains that Farouq doesn’t understand that “when I say I’m an animal it’s not just what I look like but what I feel” (87).