Chroniclers, characters, connections

Early on in this novel, the narrator-sutradhar, Karamchand, sees a travel guide, India, fall in muck and get rescued by a porter who then hands it over to a white man.

- Priyanka Sarkar

He muses, ‘India drops into shit. A labourer redeems it. A foreigner rewards him. As a Malayali, he was unable to ignore the politics concealed in those actions.’ He thus invites readers to read into the politics of the goings-on in the train.

The fact that the train, Sampark Kranti, is a metaphor for the country and humanity is established early on. Karamchand is a writer while his co-passenger, the generic white man, John, is a wildlife photographer. Karamchand is, of course, named after Gandhi. So, we know his ideological standpoint from the beginning, and that we are meant to trust him.