Analyse af 'Twenty Rupees and an Air-conditioner'

Balram is a rickshaw puller who has a habit of reading a newspaper every day in front of Uncle Singh’s restaurant. This way he has discovered a clever trick on how to enjoy cool free air, but everything has a price. Balram has made a deal with Singh Uncle to lay in front of his restaurant porch and enjoy the cool and refreshing air from his air conditioner in exchange Balram must transport Singh Uncle’s “heavy” wife from a nearby school to their house. That is a 2 kilometers long journey and Balram begins to question if it is sufficient compensation that is worth the trouble. Plus, it’s free of charge, so he doesn’t make any profit from this deal except getting the opportunity to enjoy refreshing air but is that enough?

Analysis

The story starts with an introduction to beedi, which is a cheap and small Indian cigarette. This leads us to the character Balram, he is a rickshaw puller who enjoys beedis. The narrator goes as far as saying Balram likes beedis more than his wife. This is to emphasize his love for beedis. His appearance is described as a typical rickshaw puller with sun-burnt skin, tattered clothing, and he shares resemblance to the other rickshaw pullers. This reflects the physical toll the hard labor has on rickshaw pullers. He has a habit of lying in front of Uncle Singh’s restaurant to enjoy the cool refreshing air from his air conditioner. He does so, by convincing Uncle Singh to let him lie there. This proves that Balram is clever and good at pursuing others. He uses creative methods for solving his problems.