"Kushal certainly has pretensions toward neutrality, even if he isn't strictly neutral. This makes him an effective narrator, as you point out. But it's the pride that Kushal takes in his neutrality that really interests me. I think he savors the idea that he exists at a remove from his family; it makes him feel unusual, even exceptional. The irony being, of course, that everyone around Kushal is equally convinced of his or her own exceptionalism."
"Why does she need to stand out? For the same reason we all do, I suppose. It's that old, comforting fiction: I am nothing like the other members of my group; I am unique. Most of the time, this does as much for a person as the opposite comforting fictionI am exactly like the other members of my group; I speak for all of usmight do."
Kushal is a thirteen-year-old younger son who observes his family in late‑1990s Bangalore with claimed neutrality. He positions himself between an academically gifted older brother, Tarun, and parents with strong, performative identities. Tarun labels Kushal a fence‑sitter. Kushal's neutrality is a source of private pride and a way to feel exceptional. Each family member constructs difference: the mother adopts hobbies—growing orchids, riding horses, studying French—to prove she is not like other housewives; the father remembers feeling distinct from his brothers; a classmate keeps herself at arm's length. The household repeatedly balances iconoclasm against group affinity as identity strategies.
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