Avinash Character Analysis in A Fine Balance

Avinash is a friend of Maneck’s who teaches him how to play chess. He gets involved in college politics and manages to improve food in the dining hall, but he disappears shortly after the start of the Emergency and eventually turns up dead. He was likely targeted due to his political organizing.

Avinash Quotes in A Fine Balance

The A Fine Balance quotes below are all either spoken by Avinash or refer to Avinash. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

“Hang on for a minute. What’s the point of thrashing these guys? The crooked caterer is the one to blame.”

Related Characters: Avinash (speaker), Maneck

Page Number and Citation: 240

Explanation and Analysis:

This quote is one of the defining character moments for Avinash, Maneck’s friend who helps him adjust to the often-difficult life in the student hostel where he moves after leaving his family. The “guys” that Avinash refers to are kitchen workers who served non-vegetarian food to vegetarian eaters, possibly without realizing what they were doing. Although many in the college (where violent initiation rituals called “ragging” thrive) want to beat up the kitchen workers, Avinash urges moderation and protest instead of violence. This passage portrays Avinash as part of a long tradition of nonviolent protest in India, in which Mahatma Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliqua

Now the express could be seen in the distance, having cleared the bend in the tracks. The rumble was louder, growing to a roar as it approached. When the first compartment had entered the station, he stepped off the platform and onto the gleaming silver tracks.

The elderly woman in dark glasses was the first to scream. Then the shriek of the pneumatic brakes drowned all other sounds. The fast train took several hundred yards to stop.

Maneck’s last thought was that he still had Avinash’s chessmen.

Related Characters: Omprakash , Dina, Avinash, Ishvar , Maneck

Page Number and Citation: 601

Explanation and Analysis:

This quote details the moments right before Maneck’s suicide. While Maneck’s motivations remain partly mysterious, part of the issue seems to be his increasing feelings of alienation from his old home, including his inability to relate to Dina, Omprakash, and Ishvar as he once did. The fact that Maneck dies in front of an express train brings the novel full circle—everything began with a chance meeting of Maneck, Omprakash, and Ishvar on an express train (which was delayed at one point due to a dead body on the track). The fact that the train takes “several hundred yards to stop” Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatib

Avinash Character Timeline in A Fine Balance

The timeline below shows where the character Avinash appears in A Fine Balance. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...In his room, he finds and kills three cockroaches. The noise brings over his neighbor, Avinash, who helps him fumigate. Maneck and Avinash play a game of draughts (also called checkers).... (full context)

Maneck and Avinash continue to spend time together over the next two weeks, with Avinash teaching Maneck how... (full context)

The caterer loses his job, and Maneck, Avinash, and the other students celebrate. Avinash starts organizing around other causes, like getting cockroaches and... (full context)

Avinash tells Maneck he read in the newspaper that Prime Minister was accused of cheating in... (full context)

...newspaper and get the professors to sign patriotism pledges. Maneck hates this and worries for Avinash but tries to avoid trouble. (full context)

Maneck goes to try to find Avinash and return his chess set. Maneck arrives, and as expected, Avinash isn’t around. But as... (full context)

...he forgot to drop off the chess set. He decides to mail it back to Avinash’s parents. He goes back to Dina’s. Beggarmaster arrives, looking for Omprakash and Ishvar, forgetting they... (full context)

...was out of office for a while but came back. He then finds one about Avinash and how he seems to have died in police custody. (full context)

Before Maneck leaves, Dina shows him Avinash’s chess set, which he left behind. He thanks her for the chess box and then... (full context)

...station. Maneck steps onto the tracks, and his last thought is that he still has Avinash’s chess set. (full context)

Avinash Character Analysis

Avinash Quotes in A Fine Balance

Chapter 5 Quotes

Epilogue Quotes

Avinash Character Timeline in A Fine Balance