Rahul Waghekar Character Analysis in Behind the Beautiful Forevers

Asha’s son, a cheerful, popular boy who dreams of working in a fancy hotel. Rahul is Mirchi’s best friend, even though Rahul is Hindu and belongs to the Shiv Sena party that hates low-caste Northern Indian Muslims like Mirchi’s family. Rahul’s openness and friendly demeanor is a sign of the changing India, which looks more towards economic opportunity and less towards old concerns of caste and religion.

Rahul Waghekar Character Timeline in Behind the Beautiful Forevers

The timeline below shows where the character Rahul Waghekar appears in Behind the Beautiful Forevers. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Society, Competition, and Social Division Theme Icon

Opportunity, Corruption, and Inequality Theme Icon

...his bottles. In the afternoon, Mirchi gets home from school and waits for his friend Rahul to tell him about his day working for the Intercontinental Hotel. Rahul appears wearing fine... (full context)

Abdul avoids the other boys, but he too listens in to Rahul’s tales of the foreign women at the party and their wild antics. Abdul fondly remembers... (full context)

Rahul gets his entrepreneur’s spirit from his mother, Asha. Asha works for the political party Shiv... (full context)

As dusk falls, Rahul struggles to get a kite out a tree so that he can resell it for... (full context)

Asha Waghekar, Rahul’s mother, is very happy this winter because the current slumlord of Annawadi (the man who... (full context)

Manju finishes cooking and Rahul comes home from chatting in the street. Asha scolds Rahul for wearing his pants low... (full context)

...to distance herself from her mother. The afternoon after Subhash’s failed rally, she complains to Rahul about all the work she has to do, but Rahul is too distracted by his... (full context)

In July, Asha, Mahadeo, Rahul, and Manju visit the small village where they lived before moving to Mumbai. Asha feels... (full context)