Funny Boy

The narrator begins by describing Sunday (or “spend-the-day”) as the day each week when the children of his extended family spend time at their grandparents’ house. They look forward to this day as an escape from their parents’ watchful eyes. He describes paying his respects to his grandmother (Ammachi) and grandfather (Appachi). Ammachi and Janaki—a servant in the household—are responsible for the children on Sunday, but the children mostly avoid them out of fear.

They work out a system of dividing up the territory between girls and boys. The front of the house is for the boys (and one girl named Meena) to play cricket (a sport similar to baseball that is common in Sri Lanka and other parts of South Asia). The back of the house is for the girls and the narrator, seven-year-old Arjie (who is a boy) to play more traditionally feminine games. Arjie is the leader of the girls’ group due to his high level of imagination in creating games like bride-bride, which reenacts a fake wedding sequence. As the leader, Arjie is always given the coveted position of the bride, which he relishes because he can wear a beautiful sari (a traditional dress worn by women in Sri Lanka and other South Asian countries) and transform into another person.