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The Narrator
Tridib is the narrator's uncle. He's about twenty years older and is a very skilled storyteller. He often tells the narrator stories about the year he lived in London with the Prices. Tridib's sense of place in his stories is so exact, the narrator can find his way around London as an adult years later going off of what Tridib told him. Tridib has an atlas that he uses to show the narrator where in the world the places he talks about in his stories are. As an adult, Tridib is the only one in his family to not take after his wealthy father and get a high-powered, international job. Instead, he remains in his grandmother's home in Calcutta and pursues a PhD in archaeology. When Tridib is 27, he begins a correspondence with May, Mrs. Price's daughter. She was an infant when he lived in London. They write for several years and at one point, Tridib writes a long, detailed letter about a time he witnessed strangers having sex and invites May to come to India. When May accepts and arrives in Calcutta, she's relieved to discover that Tridib isn't scary—he's shy and young-looking, and though he very clearly loves May, he's unsure of what to say or how to show it. Tridib accompanies May and Tha'mma to Dhaka and to Tha'mma's ancestral home, where he dies in a riot. He is brutally murdered attempting to save May, Jethamoshai, and Khalil from an angry mob. His death haunts May, the narrator, Tha'mma, and Robi for decades.
Tridib Quotes in The Shadow Lines
The The Shadow Lines quotes below are all either spoken by Tridib or refer to Tridib. 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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1. Going Away Quotes
I tried to tell her, but neither then nor later, though we talked about it often, did I ever succeed in explaining to her that I could not forget because Tridib had given me worlds to travel in and he had given me eyes to see them with; she, who had been travelling around the world since she was a child, could never understand what those hours in Tridib's room had meant to me […]
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When the narrator and Ila are sixteen, the narrator tries to tell her about what Tridib's stories meant to him and the effect those stories had on his life. Ila is wealthy and has the opportunity to travel often, so she doesn’t have to rely on stories of faraway lands to "travel" in her imagination like the narrator does. Further, Tridib later became a stickler for using one's imagination precisely to delve into the ordinary and the mundane, a skill that the narrator carries into adulthood. Tridib teaches the narrator how to view the world by considering everything: his memories 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.
I would have been frightened, she said. But I would have prayed for strength, and God willing, yes, I would have killed him. It was for our freedom: I would have done anything to be free.
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When the narrator learns that Tha'mma wanted to be a part of the pre-Partition movements, he learns that Tha'mma places a premium on freedom. The fact that she ties freedom to violence explains the peculiar ways she deals with other people over the course of the novel. For Tha’mma, freedom is something that must be secured through violent means and then held tightly. She doesn't understand that Ila, for example, feels free when she doesn't live in India. This is unthinkable for Tha’mma because Ila didn't do any of the hard work that a person must go through to obtain 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 oc
I said: I'm not meeting you for the first time; I've grown up with you.
He was taken aback.
That must have taken some doing, he said drily, since I grew up right here, in boring suburban old West Hampstead.
I've known the streets around here for a long time too, I said.
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When the narrator meets Nick Price for the first time (when they're both adults), the narrator is unable to ignore the feeling that he "knows" Nick, even if they've never met, because of all the stories the narrator has heard about him. For the narrator, he moves through the world seeing that his memories and other people’s stories constantly inform how he feels about something, which is why he feels this way about Nick. However, the version of Nick that the narrator grew up with is very much a figment of his imagination. The narrator had only Ila's brief description 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 necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia e
2. Coming Home Quotes
But he did know that was how he wanted to meet her, May—as a stranger, in a ruin. He wanted them to meet as the completest of strangers—strangers-across-the-seas—all the more strangers because they knew each other already. He wanted them to meet far from their friends and relatives—in a place without a past, without history, free, really free, two people coming together with the utter freedom of strangers.
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In this passage, the narrator recounts the entirety of Tridib's very sexual letter to May, inviting her to come visit in India so they can "meet as strangers." When Tridib suggests that he and May could be free in India, he believes this because his family and May's family don't have history there like they do in England. In England, the two would be at the mercy of the social structure and expectations of England, while in India, there are few people who have actually met May. Though Tridib never actually tells the story, his mention of them as "strangers-across-the-seas" 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 officii
They were all around me, we were together at last, not ghosts at all: the ghostliness was merely the absence of time and distance—for that is all that a ghost is, a presence displaced in time.
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As adults, the narrator and Ila go into Mrs. Price's cellar so that Ila can confide in the narrator about Nick's infidelity, and the narrator feels as though he's surrounded by the many stories he's heard about this cellar. This shows how the narrator so deeply relies on these stories to inform his experiences of the present. From the narrator’s perspective, Tridib and Snipe aren't truly dead; they're just ghosts that appear when something triggers his memory and brings up stories about them. Living in this way allows the narrator to lead a rich life guided by the voices of Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam
I was a child, and like all the children around me, I grew up believing in the truth of the precepts that were available to me: I believed in the reality of space; I believed that distance separates, that there is a corporeal substance; I believed in the reality of nations and borders; I believed that across the border there existed another reality.
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The narrator explains how he had to forgive himself for taking fifteen years for connecting his childhood experience of riots in Calcutta to Tridib's tragic death at the hands of a mob in Dhaka. He attributes this late discovery to the simple fact that he was a child with a simplistic understanding of the world. Most importantly, the narrator grew up believing that those who live across a border are fundamentally different from himself—something that allows people to dehumanize those who live elsewhere or live differently. His mention of space refers to the fact that the event that triggered the 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
His atlas showed me, for example, that […] Chiang Mai in Thailand was much nearer Calcutta than Delhi is […] Yet I had never heard of those places until I drew my circle, and I cannot remember a time when I was so young that I had not heard of Delhi or Srinagar.
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When the narrator draws circles in Tridib's atlas and learns that some cities in foreign countries are closer to him than many Indian cities, the narrator comes to a greater understanding about borders. The narrator understands that the border makes it so that he, as an Indian boy, grew up knowing everything that happened within his own country, while downplaying or silencing everything that happens outside it. This explains several events in the novel, including Ila's assertion that nothing important happens in India. Because she lives in England and embraces English culture, she believes that the border and the distance 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 necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus po
They had drawn their borders, believing in that pattern, in the enchantment of lines, hoping perhaps that once they had etched their borders upon the map, the two bits of land would sail away from each other like the shifting tectonic plates of the prehistoric Gondwanaland.
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As the narrator draws circles in Tridib's atlas, he wonders at the fact that people think that borders actually separate people. Just as Tha'mma learned on her trip to Dhaka, there are usually not actual lines in the sand to delineate the boundary between two countries. Instead, the borders exist more in people's minds, but this doesn't necessarily diminish their power. In contrast, the narrator realizes that the border lines can actually make it easier to see the similarities from one side of the border to the other. This is what happened between Dhaka and Calcutta; the narrator refers to Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntu
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Tridib Character Timeline in The Shadow Lines
The timeline below shows where the character Tridib appears in The Shadow Lines. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
1. Going Away
Thirteen years before the narrator's birth, in 1939, Mayadebi, the Shaheb, and eight-year-old Tridib move to England. The narrator, who is now eight years old himself, tries to imagine...
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Tha'mma doesn't like Tridib; she insists that a person must use their time wisely, and that Tridib doesn't do...
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Tha'mma knows that Tridib visits primarily to "nurse his stomach." He comes when he finds himself needing a restroom...
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The narrator runs into Tridib in the street fairly regularly when he's a child. Tridib is the only one in...
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The narrator knows that Tridib only goes to the park rarely, and he hears about Tridib from his best friend...
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If he hears Tridib is nearby, the narrator skips his evening cricket game and finds him. He never questions...
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Tridib is so self-mocking, nobody on the street quite knows what to believe about him. Nobody...
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When the narrator is nine, Tridib disappears for weeks. When the narrator stops at Tridib's house one day, Tridib tells him...
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The narrator bursts forward and yells at Tridib that he got it wrong, since he just saw him a few weeks ago in...
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...says that it was taken several years before, and explains that she sent it to Tridib. She tells the narrator that she and Tridib began writing to each other in 1959,...
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The narrator insists that Tha'mma was wrong about Tridib: he is openly dismissive of the gossips, and the narrator recognizes that he's happiest surrounded...
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...if she remembers how, as children, Ila, the narrator, and Robi used to go find Tridib and listen to him talk about all sorts of things. Ila insists she remembers and...
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...remembers. The narrator tells the reader this isn't even a question—Ila will never understand what Tridib's stories meant to the narrator. Since Ila traveled so much as a child, she was...
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...invented in a person's imagination; they don't just exist. When the narrator was a boy, Tridib told him that Ila had never truly traveled, since her imagination and her inventions of...
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...stories taught the narrator that the places in the atlas were real, not "fairylands" like Tridib told him about. The narrator says this assertion was misguided; Tridib, as an archaeologist, instructed...
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...narrator recalls a time when he was ten and Ila; her mother, Queen Victoria; and Tridib came to visit. In the flashback, Queen Victoria tells the narrator about their house in...
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...telling her story, she waits for the narrator's response. The narrator doesn't want to disappoint Tridib, so he asks what species the snake was. Tridib looks disappointed. Later, as the narrator...
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Despite understanding Tridib's meaning, the narrator also understands that Tridib's imagination is far more detailed and precise than...
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...but she doesn't know. Back outside, Ila is indignant, but the narrator tells her that Tridib used to tell them about how Alan Tresawsen, Mrs. Price's brother, worked there before the...
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In the pub, the narrator tries to explain to Ila and Robi the "archaeological" Tridib, but Ila is contemptuous. The narrator insists that if they don't use their own imaginations,...
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...sent Tha'mma an anxious letter implying that Robi got in trouble at school. Tha'mma summoned Tridib to explain the incident fully, and he said that Robi had beaten up a notorious...
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Tha'mma told Tridib and the narrator about a quiet boy she'd gone to college with in the 1920s....
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Tridib asked what happened to the boy, and Tha'mma said she learned later that the boy...
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...when Mayadebi noticed how sad he looked, she explained to him that Ila, Queen Victoria, Tridib, and Lizzie are in another car. Finally, the other car pulls up. The narrator hides...
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...small; even May was in awe of its size. The narrator had told May that Tridib's grandfather bought it in London in the 1890s and shipped it to Calcutta in pieces,...
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...the table. The narrator hadn't known what to say to that, and May wondered why Tridib's grandfather brought back a "worthless bit of England." The narrator had found it impossible to...
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...when he grew up. Nick said he wanted to be like his grandfather, Lionel Tresawsen. Tridib later told the narrator about Lionel Tresawsen: Tridib said that he'd been a jack of...
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...develop bombs powerful enough to destroy entire streets until after 1940. The narrator insists that Tridib told him that the street was destroyed. They argue for a moment, and then they...
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...offers the narrator a drink, but he's too engrossed in looking around the room that Tridib had once shown him pictures of. The pictures were taken mostly by the Shaheb in...
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...a bomb shelter. Dan stands to the right—he'd been a fascinating figure for the young Tridib. He worked at a leftist newspaper, and Tridib's questions about the paper were embarrassing and,...
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Tridib carried one more image with him that wasn't captured in a photograph: he watched the...
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...she said something about her being a "warmongering fascist," and the narrator repeated something that Tridib had said: Tha'mma just wanted a middle-class life that allowed her to believe in the...
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...camp on the Isle of Wight, and Mike joined the navy and died in 1943. Tridib went with Mrs. Price and Mayadebi to collect Alan's things a few days after he...
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2. Coming Home
Tridib looked around and noticed he was next to a large building. He noticed a hole...
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Tridib watched a woman walk by outside and stop. Her dog defecated on the sidewalk, and...
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As the man lowered the woman to the floor, the dog began barking. Tridib was afraid the lovers would be discovered, but the woman slapped the dog and it...
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...can stay with the narrator's family while she's in Calcutta. The narrator's father agrees instantly. Tridib visits a week later and announces that he'll be going to Dhaka as well. He...
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The narrator, his father, and Tridib met May at the station. The narrator was worried that Tridib wouldn't recognize May. He...
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On the way home, Tridib told a story about seeing the infant May in a gas mask, a sight that...
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...herself in her hotel room in Delhi and felt helpless and afraid. She wondered if Tridib would look as intense and somewhat frightening as he did in the photo he'd sent...
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...days of May's visit, she often invited the narrator along when she went out with Tridib. One morning, they went to see the Victoria Memorial. The narrator chatted about ice cream...
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Tridib gave the narrator money to buy whatever treat he wanted and sent him away. The...
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When the narrator's father suggested that Tridib take May to a harbor, the narrator insisted on going, too. About an hour outside...
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Finally, Tridib agreed to help. He snuck up behind the dog and held its head. May sawed...
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...after she purchases it, she returns to the narrator and her story. Back in Calcutta, Tridib dropped the narrator off at his house and took May to his. It was the...
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...objects in the room seem to float away and be replaced by ghosts of nine-year-old Tridib, Snipe, and eight-year-old Ila. When Ila buries her face in the narrator's shoulder and begins...
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...flashes back to the day that young Ila cried after telling her story about Madga. Tridib appeared, and the narrator invited him into their imaginary house in London. He showed Tridib...
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Tridib slipped out of the house and went down to look at some of the bomb...
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When the alert sounded, everyone went down to the shelter. Finally, Tridib asked Snipe to tell the story. The narrator says that he could see the story...
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...1964, it's nothing more than a suburb. When Tha'mma insists that she's not in Dhaka, Tridib points out that she's a foreigner now.
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One morning while Tha'mma, Tridib, and May are in Dhaka, the narrator discovers that there's trouble in Calcutta. His mother...
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...The driver whispers something in Mayadebi's ear, and she relays his message to Tha'mma and Tridib: they must come back quickly in case of trouble.
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Tha'mma, Mayadebi, Tridib, May, and Robi approach the house. Children take May's hands as they walk. When they...
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...him when he used to not allow Muslims to get within ten feet of him. Tridib asks how Khalil came to live in the house, and Saifuddin explains that after Partition,...
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Jethamoshai asks Tha'mma to describe her case, and Tridib loudly explains that they're relatives. Jethamoshai's face lights up maliciously at the mention of relatives....
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...he's going to court. Khalil manages to convince Jethamoshai to get out of bed, and Tridib helps lift the old man into the rickshaw. Outside, Mayadebi and Tha'mma take one last...
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...town in Pakistan), however, experienced violent riots. The narrator realizes suddenly that Tha'mma, May, and Tridib left for Dhaka the day before these riots broke out.
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...library for days. He lies in bed, wondering why his father allowed Tha'mma, May, and Tridib to even go to Dhaka—it seems his father sent them on purpose. However, when the...
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Several months after he makes these discoveries, the narrator drags out Tridib's old atlas and a compass. He discovers that Srinagar and Khulna are 1200 miles apart,...
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...and Dhaka became so important and connected to each other. This irony, he believes, killed Tridib.
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...carefully that Tha'mma is very interested in the war with Pakistan, especially after "they killed" Tridib over there. The narrator reminds his mother that Tridib died in an accident, but he...
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Things happened quickly after Tridib's death: May left, Tridib was cremated, and the narrator spent time with an uncle. His...
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Robi talks about Tridib's death for the first time in London, the day that Ila takes him and the...
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...approaches the rickshaw. She yells that everyone in the car are cowards. Robi knows that Tridib gets out of the car, but no matter how hard he reaches for him, he...
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...anything as you can't divide collective memory. He says that if freedom were truly possible, Tridib's death would've freed him, but the dream continues to haunt him. At this, Ila hugs...
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...up what the narrator had been unable to ask: why he never asked her how Tridib died. The narrator admits he never had the courage or the words. He can tell...
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...she was the only one who didn't know how it was going to play out. Tridib ran after her and pushed her down and then continued to the rickshaw. He tried...
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...be alone. When she calms, she asks the narrator if he thinks that she killed Tridib. The narrator doesn't answer. May continues: she says she used to think she did, but...
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