53 pages • 1 hour read
Mohsin HamidMoth Smoke
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2000A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 6-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary: “The Big Man”
Murad Badshah, self-described “rickshaw fleet captain and land pirate” (59), tells the story of how he became acquainted with Darashikoh Shezad: One fateful day, Murad picked up one of his regular rickshaw customers, Professor Julius Superb, and he brought along his student Daru. Murad and Daru socialize in different circles, Murad admits, but they became friends because of their mutual interests.
Murad then relates how the rickshaw business is nearly devastated by the arrival of yellow cabs. As an enterprising businessman, however, Murad sees opportunity: He robs the cabs to supplement his income and keep his business afloat. Over time, these robberies become more difficult—the yellow cabs invest in more security, and Murad is shot in revenge—so he decides to rob boutique stores, instead. This is when he asks Daru to help him. Daru’s middle-class appearance will not arouse suspicion; thus, he can secure the store, brandishing a gun at the security guard, before Murad swoops in and relieves patrons of jewelry and money. However, Murad claims that, in the midst of their first robbery, he saw Daru shoot one of the patrons.
Chapter 7 Summary: “Four”
Daru has lost his electricity, due to his failure to pay. He is mulling over his financial difficulties and eating breakfast when Ozi’s father, Khurram, calls to invite Daru to his house, offering to help him find another job. Daru reflects on his childhood, how Khurram took care of him and his mother once his father died. The two men were in the military together, and Daru’s father was taken prisoner in the 1971 war that resulted in the independence of Bangladesh; Daru’s father died of gangrene in prison. Daru remembers that the last time he saw Khurram was at his own mother’s funeral.
The meeting is tense and brief. Khurram suggests that Daru can find work at a car dealership, but Daru wants something more prestigious and lucrative. Khurram dismisses Daru, who then meets up with Ozi. A dinner party to which Daru was not invited is in progress; there is awkwardness between the two old friends. Daru mingles among the guests, pretending that he is still employed in the banking business. He runs into Mumtaz, who suggests that the attendees are Ozi’s friends, not hers; he asks her about Zulfikar Manto. Then, the party relocates to a new location; Daru reluctantly follows Ozi and Mumtaz there. Daru is told that he is not on the invitation list and almost turned away, until one of his old school friends vouches for him.
Daru and Mumtaz take ecstasy together while Ozi interacts with the young, wealthy crowd who has gathered. Ozi inadvertently insults Daru, telling him that poverty keeps him honest. Daru drifts back outside to find Mumtaz, and he is terrified that he will actually touch her in the grips of the drug: “I can’t betray him, betray her, betray them by touching her” (87). He resists the impulse and wakes up the next day with side effects including back spasms.
While Daru recuperates, Ozi barges in without warning, announcing that India has successfully tested a nuclear bomb on the border between India and Pakistan. They discuss the possible repercussions of this. Ozi insists that Pakistan will have to do the same, just to show that they, too, are armed with powerful weapons. Ozi notices how hot it is in Daru’s house and offers to give him one of their old generators.
Daru visits his nephew’s new office. Though only 16, Jamal has started an internet business. Daru is impressed but worried that Jamal’s partner might be taking advantage of him. On his way home, he stops at a shop for some juice and sees Ozi’s car run a red light. The car strikes a young boy, and Daru rushes to the child to find him gravely injured. He takes him to the hospital, assisted by another bystander, and then leaves to confront Ozi. He finds one of Ozi’s servants washing the bloody grille of his car. Ozi does not deny that he hit the boy, but he downplays the seriousness of the incident. Daru returns to the hospital to give his report to the police, but he does not mention Ozi. The boy has died in the interim. Daru decides he will not accept any help from Ozi’s father.
The next day a storm blows in, whipping up the dust before dropping a brief monsoon rain. Daru endures the storm outside his house, taking shelter under his banyan tree.
Chapter 8 Summary: “What Lovely Weather We’re Having (or the Importance of Air-Conditioning)”
The narration returns to the courtroom, where the judge has been handed a treatise deemed relevant to the case. It is entitled “Air-Conditioning” and discusses the socioeconomic implications for those with air-conditioning and those without. The paper relates the lecture Professor Julius Superb once gave on the topic, attended by then-student Murad Badshah. The omniscient narrator relates relevant characters’ opinions on air-conditioning: Murad is disdainful of air conditioners, as his socialist bent requires; heat is an equalizer among the classes. In contrast, Aurangzeb Shah loves them, while his wife despises them, having gotten a near-fatal case of pneumonia from one as a child. For his part, Daru finds air conditioners symbols of tragedy. His mother died of a stray bullet wound when they were sleeping on the roof to escape the heat. The load of air conditioners on the electrical grid that day was too much; thus, the electricity was shut off. Nobody knows where the gunshot came from.
Manucci, the servant, grew up confused about air conditioners, having only encountered their hot output outside buildings. Knowing that they were supposed to blow cold air, he called that hot output “cold” to fit in—so when Daru’s mother rescued him from the streets, taking him in after he attempted to pickpocket her, and he experienced air-conditioning for the first time, he said of the actual cold air, “This air is hot” (110). Witnessing this experience unsettled young Daru.
Chapter 9 Summary: “Five”
Daru sits alone in his un-air-conditioned house, smoking hash and ruminating on his impoverished circumstances. He thinks constantly of Mumtaz, who finally, three weeks after the party, pops by his house. He is honest with her about his financial situation, and she is sympathetic but not patronizing. She asks him to teach her to box, so he obliges. At the end of the session, he dares her to hit him in the face. He does not believe she will do it and is left with a bloodied lip when she does. She laughs instead of apologizing and kisses him on the lips when she leaves.
Manucci returns later with the news that Pakistan has successfully tested its nuclear bomb on the border with India. Celebrations ensue, and one of Daru’s former work friends, Raider, drops by to see if Daru has any extra hash, wanting a substantial amount. Daru offers to get him some from his dealer, Murad, even though he feels hesitant about it.
The next day, Mumtaz takes Daru to a palm reader. The palm reader is interrupted in the middle of the session after saying there is bad news and does not return. While they wait, Daru and Mumtaz watch two young boys, one a servant, engage in a kite fight. The servant boy is defeated. They then go to the zoo, where Daru asks Mumtaz about her pen name. They kiss again when they part.
Daru finally gets the hash from Murad, who also gives him some hash that is laced with heroin. Daru does not want it, but he takes it anyway. When Daru gives Raider the hash, he insists that Daru take a cut of the money: Raider intends to sell it to others at a markup. Daru returns to his house to find Manucci watching moths circle the candle flames.
Ozi again drops by the house unannounced. He is uncharacteristically serious, and Daru fears he has discovered that he and Mumtaz kissed. But instead, Ozi berates Daru for confronting him about the dead boy; Ozi expects Daru to be unquestioningly loyal. Daru keeps his temper, but he is disgusted with Ozi. He sheds any guilt he has over his increasingly romantic friendship with Mumtaz. Meanwhile, Daru discovers that dealing hash, though he finds it distasteful, is a quick and easy way to make money. Otherwise, his time is preoccupied with smoking hash himself and thinking of Mumtaz. When she finally shows up again, they climb up to the roof after smoking together and make love under the stars.
Chapters 6-9 Analysis
In contrast to the chapters in which Daru functions as the narrator, Murad Badshah’s chapter is self-consciously aware of having an audience. That is, while Daru narrates events in his first-person account, he is not directly addressing anyone in particular—as one would find in a typical novel of realism. Murad’s first-person narration directs his account of events to an unspecified “you” (61). Once again, this has the effect of implicating the reader: Murad is either addressing the judge and court of the trial or the reader, which effectively amounts to the same thing. The author, via the character, invites the reader to render judgment against Daru based on the available evidence.
Murad frames himself as a modern-day Robin Hood figure, or a socialist bandit, entitled to the spoils of his thievery because of the corruption inherent to the system. He argues that “the right to possess property is at best a contingent one. When disparities become too great, a superior right, that to life, outweighs the right to property. Ergo, the very poor have the right to steal from the very rich” (64). He also engages in a lengthy digression about murder, stating quite clearly, “I am not a murderer” (64). However, that statement is almost immediately called into question when, two pages later, Murad confesses, “I killed a man” (66). This has the effect of turning Murad into an unreliable narrator—not to mention that Murad is a celebrated thief and scoundrel. He himself revels in his reputation; the rumors of his exploits “flatte[r] his ego” (67). Thus, when he goes on to claim that Daru shot the boy during the robbery—displaying “his capacity for cold-blooded murder” (69)—it must be regarded with suspicion.
Still, even if Daru is not a cold-blooded murderer, his own narration incriminates him in a variety of other ways. His arrogance when Ozi’s father offers to help him find a job is palpable: He will not even consider working at a car dealership, thinking Khurram is joking when he suggests it. This arrogance is compounded by the insult of not being invited to Ozi’s dinner party of flown-in sushi: “I know a snub when I see one,” Daru thinks, “and this is a serious snub, especially since I love fish and know damn well that I’ve never told Ozi otherwise” (77). Further, Daru is humiliated at the following party, when he is almost turned away—his old school friend, Pickles, must “no[d] to the guard” in order for Daru’s car to get past the gate (81). Daru’s humiliation reaches its apotheosis when Ozi thoughtlessly remarks that Daru does not belong in this group: “That’s because you can’t afford it,” he tells his friend. “But you’re lucky in a sense. Being broke keeps you honest” (85). The remark both enrages and embarrasses Daru, but it does nothing to lessen his growing sense of aggrievement that is fed by wounded pride. Ozi’s comment is ironic, ultimately, as Daru gets more deeply embedded in his criminal activities.
The gulf between Daru and Ozi, already carved large by the disparity in their financial standing, grows insurmountable when Daru witnesses Ozi’s hit-and-run accident and lack of remorse. When Daru leaves Ozi, he notes that the back seat of his Suzuki “is covered with blood” from taking the dying boy to the hospital (97). Daru bears the burden of Ozi’s actions; his car is literally marked by the senseless tragedy. It is in the aftermath of this incident that Daru decides he will refuse any assistance from Ozi’s father.
Yet this refusal also leads Daru into increasingly risky behavior: He falls into dealing drugs almost without noticing it, and his increased drug usage allows him to justify his behavior. When his former colleague Raider first asks him to buy a significant amount of drugs, Daru hesitates: “I feel strange buying that much pot, especially since it isn’t for me” (123), but he does it anyway—partly because it will enhance “the sorry state of my supplies” (123). In this manner, it becomes insidiously easy to become a dealer of the drugs that one frequently uses: “Making money this way isn’t pleasant,” he thinks, “but it’s easy, and easy money is exactly what I need, even if there isn’t enough of it to pay an electricity bill” (144). The more Daru uses drugs, the more he sells and the less interested he becomes in looking for legitimate employment.
At the same time, Daru is falling into an illicit affair with Ozi’s wife. The day after he decides to procure the drugs for Raider, he goes to the palm reader with Mumtaz, which ends with their first sexually charged kiss. Earlier, when Mumtaz asks Daru for boxing lessons, the unspoken intention between them is symbolized by the removal of her ring: “‘Take off your ring,’ I say. She does. It’s a solitaire diamond, simple and probably worth almost a year of my salary at the bank, when the bank paid me a salary” (115). Not only does Mumtaz relinquish her wedding ring for Daru’s lessons, but the value of the ring itself also represents the widening rift between Daru and his former best friend. Daru’s jealousy and resentment grow alongside his ethically and morally suspect actions.
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