What a Downer

One thing that has become very evident in reading a fine balance is that Mistry is a downer. He introduces these episodes of happiness and by the end of the episode everything collapses.
The first example we see of this is when Dina finally finds happiness with Rustom, but that is short lived because Rustom gets killed while going out for ice cream. It was worsened by the fact that he ws going out for ice cream to finish a wonderful evening that epitomized the cheerfulness that this time in Dina's life had given her compared to the struggle of living with Nusswan.
We also discussed the episode of the taylors and how almost in a split second they had gone from successful taylors in their home town to having to travel to the city where everything is industrialized and work was underpaid. And who could forget the mountain episode where Manecks father goes mad and nature is being swallowed by roads and shanty towns.
I think the reason the author is presenting this roller-coaster of circumstances for these characters is to show that in this Emergency phase that happiness can never be truly attained. You can have a taste but the hand of the Emergency is going to come snatch you, eventually, and throw you into the horrible life you are trying to leave behind (It can also throw you into the front of a speeding train since it seems to happen so often in this novel). It shows the authors resentment of this phase in India's history to show the sentiment of most Indians toward the Emergency. The author serves the same purpose, I think, as his family of four that we have discussed are a micro chasm of the majority of Indians during this time. This has not been pleasant experience and unfortunately for the four main characters they cannot find pleasure in the small things like in The God Of Small Things because if the pattern in this novel holds true the small thing will probably die in a very tragic fashion. I can't wait to read the rest of the novel to see how Mistry can keep this going because I'm starting to enjoy looking for these events.