Shiva is a good-looking Hindu waiter at the curry restaurant where Samad works. Shiva often mocks Samad for his age and intellectualism, but he also gives Samad advice on dealing with Poppy Burt-Jones: he insists that relationships between white women and East Asian men will never work because there is “too much bloody history” between them.
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Shiva Bhagwati Character Timeline in White Teeth
The timeline below shows where the character Shiva Bhagwati appears in White Teeth. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 3
...distant cousin, Ardashir Mukhul. Samad splits his tips with the other waiters, including the good-looking Shiva, who is adept at flirting with customers. Shiva becomes enraged when he has to give...
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Chapter 6
...back in the present of 1984, he excels at the restaurant, and he now orders Shiva (who has grown older and is less attractive) around. Shiva asks Samad if something is...
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Chapter 8
At work, Shiva tells Samad that he was wrong to sleep with a white woman. The restaurant, nestled...
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Chapter 18
...has been decreed” by changing “an animal that Allah has created”: Marcus Chalfen. Mo, Millat, Shiva, Abdul-Jimmy, Abdul-Colin, Hifan, and Tyrone gather in the hall’s office together.
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Chapter 19
Gathered at the Willesden Green Station, KEVIN—including Millat, Hifan, Tyrone, Mo, Shiva, Abdul-Colin, and Abdul-Jimmy—realize that there are no southbound Jubilee Line trains from Baker Street, which...
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...thinks that they are focused on words, not action, but Plan B has stuck nonetheless. Shiva tries to convince him to follow through with the plan. Twenty minutes later, the group...
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