Anne+and+Inder+Lal+visit+Palace

Shavonne:

 Anne and Inder Lal’s visit to the palace establishes the different perspectives on the importance of past and present. When they reached the town of Khatm, although it ‘turned out to be a wretched little place’(p11) that ‘just huddles in the shadow of the Nawab’s palace.’(p11) Anne was very interested in it all, and the history from when Olivia had been there. She ‘asked Inder Lal about the Nawab’s family but he [didn’t] know much more than [she did]’(p11). He was not very interested in it either as ‘was not keen to discuss the Nawab.’(p12) ‘He had heard about him and his dissolute bad life; also vague rumours about the old scandal.’(p12) But he didn’t care about any of that, as all those people were dead now and it isn’t as if they are important to him anymore. Showing how he was not very interested in the past, but more so the present as he was, ‘much more interested to tell [Anne] about his own troubles, which [were] many.’(p12) But Anne was very intrigued by it all, walking around the Palace and ‘[thinking] about so much and [trying] to imagine to [herself]’(p12) how everything was beforehand. She continued to ask her questions like about the Nawab’s private Mosque, ‘but Inder Lal informed [her] it would not be interesting and that instead the watchman would [then] show [her] the little Hindu shrine he has fixed up for his own worship.’(p13) The workman also feels the same as Anne as when walking throughout the empty dusty house he comments and says, ‘Ah, where has it all gone?’(p13) as he was longing for the past to, when everything was not ‘dead and mouldering’(p13) or ‘stiff with dust and age’.(p13) The actions seen through the characters, suggests whether new India or old India is important to them, this theme is also repeated throughout the novel.

Maryanne:

 Anne and Inder Lal’s visit to the palace, followed by the shrine, characterizes them and establishes the contrast between their personalities. While visiting the shrine, Anne expresses her curiousity towards India’s culture and its beliefs through a series of questions. However her questions go unanswered as Inder Lal feels that these questions are insignificant and disregards them. Anne then fills in the blanks with the only knowledge she knows and the knowledge she has been able to dig up about India. The fact that Anne already possesses knowledge about India portrays her passion to discover India and its past. Inder Lal on the other hand, conveys his disinterest, “who cares about that now?” (12), and perhaps, lack of knowledge, towards the things Anne questions him about, or what may concern India’s past. Although the crowd surrounding Anne may seem ignorant towards India’s past, other people in India display otherwise. People like the watchman at Nawab’s palace, working “close to India’s past”, exclaims his longing for the past, “Ah, where has it all gone?” (13), conveying that the past is not truly lost.