Coming of Age, Glory, and Insignificance
“Games at Twilight” focuses on a young Indian boy named Ravi who is playing hide and seek one afternoon with his siblings and cousins. When Ravi finds an ingenious hiding spot in a shed that only he is small enough to get into, he begins to dream of the glory that will come with winning the game, and he remains in the spot for what seems like hours. However, Ravi finally emerges from the shed…
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Safety vs. Fear
While childhood can often be an idyllic time, it is not without its rollercoaster of emotions and fears. In “Games at Twilight,” the protagonist, Ravi, constantly teeters between a sense of security and one of fear. As he plays a game of hide and seek, he yearns to rejoin his siblings and cousins in the sun, all the while growing more and more nervous in the dark and mysterious shed in which he chooses…
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Social Hierarchy
While Desai introduces the story’s central group of children as a kind of monolith when they are initially cooped up in their home, as soon as they start to play hide and seek outside and moderate themselves, each child takes on different roles within their group. As the dynamics among them are clarified, Desai illustrates how the group of children exhibit a strict social hierarchy that is difficult to transcend. Desai demonstrates how social politics…
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