The Lowland: Part 7, Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis

Bela is home alone with Meghna—Subhash and Elise are out for breakfast. Meghna approaches her mother and tells her that there is someone at the door. Bela assumes it is perhaps Drew stopping by, but when she approaches the door, she does not see Drew’s car parked there.When she opens the door, she is shocked to see Gauri standing in front of her. The two women are the same height now, and as Bela takes her mother in, Meghna comes to the door and encourages Bela to open it.

Bela lets Gauri in, and the three of them sit in the living room. Gauri asks if Meghna is Bela’s daughter, and when Bela got married. Bela feels that these ordinary questions, coming from her mother, feel “outrageous.” She does not want to share her life with her mother and does not answer her questions. As Gauri begins talking to Meghna, asking how old she is and when her birthday is, Bela shakes with rage. When Meghna asks Gauri who she is, Bela answers on Gauri’s behalf—she tells Meghna that Gauri is an aunt; a friend of Meghna’s grandmother whom Bela hasn’t seen since Meghna’s grandmother “died.”

Meghna, disinterested, goes back to coloring. In the wake of Bela’s shocking answer, Gauri realizes how deep and impenetrable the abyss between her and her daughter is. Though Bela is sitting only three feet away from her, she is utterly unreachable. Meghna asks Gauri to play tic-tac-toe with her, and Bela watches silently as the two play and converse. Once the tic-tac-toe game is over, Gauri sets the divorce papers on the table, and tells Bela to give them to Subhash. Gauri asks about Subhash’s health, but Bela, again, will not respond to her mother.

Overwhelmed by the failure of her visit and the effort of her journey, Gauri says she’ll be on her way. Bela puts a jacket and a pair of shoes on Meghna and tells her daughter to go out to the garden to pick a large bunch of flowers. Once Meghna is outside, and Gauri and Bela are alone, Bela unloads on Gauri. She tells her mother that she cannot stand the sight of her. She informs Gauri that she knows all about Udayan, but that the truth of her parentage does not excuse what Gauri did—nothing could. Bela tells Gauri that she is not her mother—she is “nothing,” as dead to Bela as Udayan is, except for the fact that Gauri left by choice.

Gauri silently takes Bela’s vitriol until Meghna knocks at the back door with her flowers. Bela goes to her and opens the door. Gauri approaches Meghna and bids her goodbye, then walks quickly toward the front door. Bela does not say goodbye, or even look up from what she is doing.

As soon as Gauri is out of the house, Bela opens the envelope and checks for the signatures. Though the visit was taxing and “bewildering,” Bela is grateful that she was able to shield Subhash from having to confront Gauri; that it was she herself, and not her father, who was home when Gauri called.

As Bela listens to the sound of Gauri’s car driving away, she feels strange—she has dreamed so many times of her mother’s return, and yet now that it has happened, the visit itself feels like a dream; ephemeral and inconsequential. She marvels at how angry she was just minutes ago and considers the destructive nature of the hatred she feels for her mother. It has marked all her other relationships. Recalling the day her mother left, Bela feels the urge to strike Gauri, to harm her, to be rid of her forever.