CHAPTER 11

Summary

• This chapter is set in 1933 as Digby journeys from Glasgow to Madras, India.
• Digby, a young doctor, falls ill from a kebab bought in Port Said and thus experiences the reality of Alan Elder's parting words, "Travel broadens the mind and loosens the bowels".
• He travels beneath the first class, whose entire section is booked by a Maharajah and his retinue.
• Digby becomes friends with Banny, a young Indian barrister returning home after four years of study in London.
• Digby tells Banny about the discrimination he faced in Glasgow because of his Catholic background.
• Banny sympathizes with Digby's situation, describing it as similar to India's caste system.
• The chapter also reveals Digby's eager anticipation to start his career at the Indian Medical Service, to escape the violent past of Glasgow and because it was the only place he could develop as a surgeon.
• Upon arrival in Madras, Digby becomes acutely aware of his position as one of the occupiers, after witnessing Banerjee, his Indian friend being mistreated by a British official while disembarking.
• Banny gives Digby a hard stare that symbolizes India's resentment and determination against British rule, which Digby feels deeply. Banny then departs without bidding him goodbye.