A Fine Balance: Characters

4 Characters Dina, Ishvar, Om, Maneck. Ishvar is Oms nephew. Dina is widowed. Maneck college student. Dina Shroff, who was raised by her strict brother later her father died she meets Rustom Dalal. The couple f all in love and marry, exclusively on their third wedding anniversary Rustom is kil take in a bicycle accident, go forth Dina alone. Rustoms aunt teaches Dina to sew her eyesight begins to fail, so she is forced to experience another way to make money Her friend Zenobia introduces her to Mrs Gupta, who offers her some adapt piece work She hires Ishvar Darji and his nephew Omprakash, originally from a small village, to do the work.Ishvars father wanted a better life for his sons and so displace them to a neighbouring town to learn to be tailors They became the apprentices of Muslim tailor Ashraf Ishvar was seventeen, racial hatred of Muslims reached boiling point and any homes or discloses belonging to Muslims were burnt-out to the ground Ishvar and his brother Narayan s aved Ashrafs shop by claiming it belonged to them, exit Ashraf forever in their debt. Narayan returned to the village and set up a booming tailor business for lower caste people He unite and had a son.His business was very successful and it gave him enough money to go on a proper house All was going well until Narayan find that the elections were being fixed by Thakur Dharamsi, a powerful land possessor Narayan confronted Thakur, who had him tortured Not satisfied with just killing Narayan, Thakur decided to revenge his whole family. Narayans wife, daughters and parents were tied up and burnt alive in their home. Omprakesh and Ishvar were the only ones to escape they continued working in their tailor shop, but were forced out of business when a ready-made clothing shop opened in the town.Maneck. He grew up in a big bucks village, where his father was the proud owner of the local village store and armorer of a popular drink, Kohlah Cola Maneck was sent to college and became good friends with the student president, Avinash Avinash led an uprising against the conditions and became involved in politics When the Emergency was declared, Avinash had to go into hiding, exit Maneck alone His mother past arranged for him to move in with Dina Dalal The foursome are quite happy for almost a year, but then the Emergency starts to impact their lives.The tailors shack is demolished in a government beautification program, forcing them to live on the streets After two months they wages their way out and persuade Dina to let them move in with her. Ishvar decides it is m for Om to find a wife, so they return to Ashrafs town There they snap off into Thakur, who recognises the pair Ashraf is beaten to death and Ishvar and Om are given compulsory vasectomies Thakur visits them as they are recovering from the operation and arranges on a medical air to have Oms testicles removed.Ishvars legs become infected and have to be amputated. Maneck finishes his college public life and returns home His fathers business is failing due to seamy imports of commercial soda, and Maneck decides to leave, taking a job in the Middle East. Dina finds herself all alone. A Beggarmaster who had been protecting her from her landlords bailiffs is murdered, leaving her vulnerable she reluctantly returns to live with her brother. eightsome years later, Maneck returns home for his fathers funeral.Maneck reads some old newspapers and discovers that Avinash was plant dead by the side of a railway track and Avinashs three teenage sisters hanged themselves because their parents could not afford their wedding dowries. Maneck decides to visit Dina She explains that Ishvar alienated his legs and that the tailors are now beggars Maneck leaves Dinas house, pretending not to recognize the tailors in the street, and heads for the railway station where he steps in front of a train.