How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
In short, it was precisely the kind of friendship an Englishman makes on holiday, that he can make only on holiday. A friendship that crosses class and color, a friendship that takes as its basis physical proximity and survives because the Englishman assumes the physical proximity will not continue. (5.107)
Throughout the novel, Samad and Archie will go back to this moment over and over again. How might we understand their obsession with WWII, and their friendship, better with this quote in mind?
Quote #5
"Give it to me!" He reached over the counter to where Mangal Pande was hanging at a melancholy angle above the stove. "I should never have asked... it would be a dishonor, it would cast into ignominy the memory of Mangal Pande to have him placed here in this— this irreligious house of shame!"
"You what?"
"Give it to me!"
"Now look... wait a minute—" Mickey and Archie reached out to stop him, but Samad, distressed and full of the humiliations of the decade, kept struggling to overcome Mickey's strong blocking presence. They tussled for a bit, but then Samad's body went limp and, covered in a light film of sweat, he surrendered.
"Look, Samad," and here Mickey touched Samad's shoulders with such affection that Samad thought he might weep. "I didn't realize it was such a bloody big deal for you. Let's start again. We'll leave the picture up for a week and see how it goes, right?" (10.53)
Archie and Samad spend a tremendous amount of time in Mickey's bar. Mickey knows the two pretty well, which is why he knows how important Mangal Pande is to Samad. Here again, friendship is something that develops out of habit, routine, and circumstance.
Quote #6
"But you're different," Millat Iqbal would say to the martyr Irie Jones, "you're different. We go way back. We've got history. You're a real friend. They don't really mean anything to me." Irie liked to believe that. That they had history, that she was different in a good way. (11.31-32)
Millat identifies history as the foundation of his friendship with Irie; they might just be turning into their parents.