Coolie

The following morning, travelers on the train happen on the sleeping Munoo, his tiny body crumpled up in the narrow space between cars. One couple, a chutney factory owner and his wife, on the way home to the small town of Daulatpur, more than six hours from Sham Nagar, take pity on the boy and offer to take him in. They are reeling from a recent miscarriage and are now struggling to conceive a child. They find in the runaway a surrogate child to nurture, the chance “to regard this completely strange boy as a son” (64). The wife, frail but with loving eyes, embraces Munoo with “wonderful eagerness.”

Before the train arrives at Daulatpur, the man, Prabha Dyal, explains to Munoo that he and a business partner, Ganpat, a son of wealthy parents, run the largest food processing factory in the state of Himachai. He offers Munoo work delivering the factory’s floral essences and pungents, pickle jams, mustard preserves, and chutney to shops in town. Prabha and his wife insist Munoo live with them in their huge house with marbled courtyards and open verandas. Munoo is happy for the first time since he left home. He cannot believe his good fortune.