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Old Boy
Om Bao is the cook at Mama and Papa’s estate in Phnom Penh. A large woman, Om Bao commands the rest of the servants in their tasks. She and Old Boy have a secret relationship. Om Bao disappears on a supply trip a few days before the New Year, and the family assume she has been killed, though they never recover her body.
Om Bao Quotes in In the Shadow of the Banyan
The In the Shadow of the Banyan quotes below are all either spoken by Om Bao or refer to Om Bao. 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:
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Chapter 2 Quotes
“There will remain only so many of us as rest in the shadow of a banyan tree,” again Grandmother Queen murmured, and I didn’t understand why crazy people always feel the need to say the same thing twice. “The fighting will continue. The only safe place is here…under the banyan.”
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Then I saw it!—this other world of which Papa spoke, where the lost was found, where a part of you always resided. It was quiet and lush, at once earthy and ethereal. There were no rockets or bombs exploding, no people crying or dying, no sadness, no tears, no mourning. There were only butterflies, fluttering their gossamer wings, each as brilliant as a dream, and there, near the trunk of a coconut tree, was Om Bao. She was in the form of a rainbow-colored moth, bulbous and bright, as she’d been when she was our cook.
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When he was ready, I would show him this secret world, where all he thought he had lost was in fact only hidden—transformed.
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Om Bao Character Timeline in In the Shadow of the Banyan
The timeline below shows where the character Om Bao appears in In the Shadow of the Banyan. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...not want to celebrate because of the ongoing civil unrest, Mama insisted. The family’s cook, Om Bao , is making preparations. Raami runs around the house’s balconies, free from the metal brace...
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...world around him. Old Boy, the elderly gardener, tends the courtyard flowers and flirts with Om Bao . Mama appears and requests that Old Boy bring her some lotuses, her favorite flower....
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Raami thinks of how Mama is like Papa’s poetry, mysterious and fleeting. Om Bao directs the other servants in the courtyard below, where a large banyan tree grows. Raami...
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Chapter 2
That afternoon, Om Bao goes out to a market near the airport for more New Year’s party supplies and...
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Papa and Old Boy burn Om Bao ’s most treasured belongings to place inside an urn since they have no body. Milk...
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Chapter 3
...care of the gardens and face the soldier alone. Raami thinks of how they, like Om Bao , will be gone from this place, the house defined by their absence. She senses...
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