Games at Twilight

“The children, too, felt released. They too began tumbling, shoving, pushing against each other, frantic to start. Start what? Start their business. The business of the children’s day which is—play.”

The characters within this story have clearly defined roles, and the children’s role is to play. Despite the extreme, oppressive heat of the day, they are eager to play hide-and-seek and take the whole process very seriously. They do not let the brightness and high temperature distract nor deter their game.

“The shoves became harder. Some kicked out. The motherly Mira intervened. She pulled the boys roughly apart.”

For the children, play is a means of learning and performing the social expectations that apply to their gender. In the absence of her mother, Mira takes charge of the boys. Similarly, Raghu enacts a form of aggressive dominance that is coded as masculine and that his younger brother Ravi wishes to emulate.

“‘You’re dead,’ he said with satisfaction, licking the beads of perspiration off his upper lip, and then stalked off in search of worthier prey, whistling spiritedly so that the hiders should hear and tremble.”

Raghu is quite aggressive in his hunt to find all the children who are hiding in the game. He treats all of them with equal ferocity once they are found. This quote helps readers to understand that Raghu’s character is the exact opposite of Ravi’s; Raghu is confident, merciless, and crass, whereas Ravi is anxious, doubtful, and sensitive. Ravi is one of the characters who tremble as they wait for Raghu to find them.

“Ravi heard the whistling and picked his nose in a panic, trying to find comfort by burrowing the finger deep—deep into that soft tunnel.”

This is the first introduction readers have to Ravi, the central character in the story. It is immediately evident that he is a younger sibling and has childish tendencies. This behavior is further developed throughout the story when Ravi finds himself in different stages of the game while playing hide-and-seek with the other children.

“Ravi had wished he were tall enough, big enough to reach the key on the nail, but it was impossible, beyond his reach for years to come. He had sidled away and sat dejectedly on the flowerpot. That at least was cut to his own size.”

This description of Ravi’s inner thoughts directly follows two descriptions of the physical strength, size, and maturity of two other male characters in the story: Raghu and the driver. Raghu is shown as confident and strong, and Ravi observes that the driver has a hairy chest and has access to the garage key that he won’t be able to reach for quite a while. Ravi reveals his desire to be taller and stronger; this description illustrates Ravi’s Feelings of Inadequacy and Insignificance.

“Ravi shook, then shivered with delight, with self-congratulation. Also with fear. It was dark, spooky in the shed. It had a muffled smell, as of graves.”

This behavior further demonstrates Ravi’s childish nature. He has just slipped into the small shed for a better hiding space, but he acts before he thinks through whether or not he will be able to stay calm in such a place with no one around him. Impulsivity is characteristic of children, and once Ravi realizes what he’s done, he becomes very fearful of the reality of his surroundings.

“He contemplated slipping out of the shed and into the fray. He wondered if it would be better to be captured by Raghu and be returned to the milling crowd as long as he could be in the sun, the light, the free spaces of the garden, and the familiarity of his brothers, sisters, and cousins.

This internal debate reveals one of the story’s motifs, which is the contrast between light and dark. In the text, light represents freedom, safety, and comfort, which is what Ravi is eager to return to as he sits in the dark shed. He feels scared, uncomfortable, and alone as he sits there for an unidentified length of time, and he risks losing the game just to be back in the light.

“It would be evening soon. Their games would become legitimate. The parents would sit out on the lawn on cane basket chairs and watch them as they tore around the garden or gathered in knots to share a loot of mulberries or black, teeth-splitting jamun from the garden trees.”

Ravi is imagining what will soon be taking place outside while he sits alone in the dark shed. This shows readers that this scene is routine: The family habitually gathers on summer evenings, each with their own predictable behavior. This is something Ravi seems to enjoy because he imagines it fondly as a way to distract himself from his dark surroundings.

“The gardener would fix the hosepipe to the water tap, and water would fall lavishly through the air to the ground, soaking the dry yellow grass and the red gravel and arousing the sweet, the intoxicating scent of water on dry earth—that loveliest scent in the world.”

The imagery here evokes the restorative qualities of water in nature. Water is used as a symbol for life and revival in the text, and this description helps readers visualize its effects on everything it touches.

“To defeat Raghu—that hirsute, hoarse-voiced football champion—and to be the winner in a circle of older, bigger, luckier children—that would be thrilling beyond imagination.”

Throughout the story, Ravi struggles with feelings of inferiority when compared to his siblings, particularly Raghu, who is older and whose physical stature gives him the ability to do things more easily, like climbing and running. This quote shows how desperately Ravi wants to accomplish something that will prove his worth and capability to the others.

“With a whimper he burst through the crack, fell on his knees, got up, and stumbled on stiff, benumbed legs across the shadowy yard, crying heartily by the time he reached the veranda so that when he flung himself at the white pillar and bawled, ‘Den! Den! Den!’ his voice broke with rage and pity at the disgrace of it all, and he felt himself flooded with tears and misery.”

This quote signifies the start of a fierce tantrum from Ravi, who is overcome with emotions at having lost the game he was so determined to win. He so is angry at himself for forgetting one of the most important rules of the game that he cannot control himself as he races toward his family, who has already gathered outside together for the evening.

“He tore himself out of his mother’s grasp and pounded across the lawn into their midst, charging at them with his head lowered so that they scattered in surprise. ‘I won, I won, I won,’ he bawled, shaking his head so that the big tears flew. ‘Raghu didn’t find me. I won, I won—’”

This is a bold action from Ravi for the first time in the story. After having realized that he forgot to run to the “den” to win the game of hide-and-seek, he is eager to claim his victory over the other children by insisting that he still won because Raghu never found him. When none of the children seem to pay attention to him or acknowledge him, he forces them to listen by charging at them and yelling about his victory.

“The parents had come out, taken up their positions on the cane chairs. They had begun to play again, sing and chant. All this time no one had remembered Ravi. Having disappeared from the scene, he had disappeared from their minds. Clean.”

This quote emphasizes Ravi’s place within his family. He doesn’t play an important role and is only acknowledged when he is present. He is someone who fades into the background, and his absence isn’t recognized by his family until he reappears. Not even his mother realized he was missing until he rejoins the rest of the family.