Of White Hairs and Cricket Study Guide

Rohinton Mistry was born in Bombay (now Mumbai), India to a Parsi family, Indian followers of the Iranian prophet Zoroaster. He lived out his youth in Bombay and eventually attended the University of Bombay (now the University of Mumbai), where he earned a degree in mathematics and economics. In 1975, he immigrated to Canada, and in the early 1980s, he attended the University of Toronto, where he pursued a degree in English and philosophy. While in Canada, he wrote short stories and won numerous literary competitions and prizes. His short story collection, Tales from Firozsha Baag—which contains “Of White Hairs and Cricket”—was published in 1987. The collection was met with critical acclaim, as were his three novels—1991’s Such A Long Journey, 1995’s A Fine Balance, and 2002’s Family Matters—which all explore the lives of Parsi people in modern-day Mumbai. Mistry’s writing is highly awarded, and in 2015, Mistry was appointed as a Member of the Order of Canada.

India was occupied and ruled by Britain from 1612 to 1947. The British government and British companies exploited India for cheap labor, natural resources, and political power, generating an unbalanced society where some lived lavish lives while many others lived in poverty and struggled with famine. The British doubled down on the existing caste system in India, which separated Indian people into different classes based on ethnic groups. But in general, the Parsi community to which the narrator of “Of White Hairs and Cricket” belongs exists outside the caste system, making them generally more well-off since British colonials treated them better. However, the narrator’s family’s money troubles make clear that regardless of religion or caste status, Indian people in the mid-20th century were still coping with the ill effects of British colonialism on India’s economy.

“Of White Hairs and Cricket” is part of a larger collection of short stories, Tales from Firozsha Baag, all set in the same building complex in Bombay. These other stories describe the narrator and his neighbors in fuller detail as they follow him throughout his life, including his eventual immigration to Canada. Rohinton Mistry’s 1991 novel, Such A Long Journey, explores themes similar to the ones in “Of White Hairs and Cricket.” It also takes place in Bombay and follows a Parsi man named Gustad as he attempts to keep his family out of poverty. Like Daddy, Gustad struggles to give his family a good quality of life, and because he is the man of the family, most of the responsibility for keeping the family afloat falls onto him. Other Indian authors who write about themes of identity and family include Jhumpa Lahiri (Interpreter of Maladies), Ruskin Bond (The Room on the Roof), and Arundhati Roy (The God of Small Things).