Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Prologue Summary & Analysis

July 17, 2008 – Mumbai. At midnight, the Mumbai police are looking for Abdul, a teenage recyclables sorter who lives in a Mumbai slum. Abdul’s father, Karam, has decided that he will offer himself to the police when they come to the house so that Abdul can run. The only place Abdul can think of to hide is in his shed full of garbage waiting to be sold. He tries to get there without any of his neighbors seeing, as old Hindu-Muslim resentments and economic envy for Abdul’s relatively lucrative job means that Abdul’s mostly Hindu neighbors do not like him.

Abdul makes it to his trash shed and hides among the garbage. He has made a life out of sorting recyclables and staying out of trouble, teaching him to go unnoticed at all costs in the slum of Annawadi. As migrants from rural India continue to come to Mumbai, this slum has become a lucrative crossroads for trash, but is also a tricky place where old beliefs come into conflict with new ideas. As a Muslim, Abdul tries to avoid his neighbor’s arguments about castes and sub-castes that determined life in India for so long.

Annawadi squats on land own by the Airport Authority of India and is surrounded by five huge luxury hotels that serve the rich people who fly in and out of Mumbai. India’s rapidly growing economy has led to huge construction projects in Mumbai and offered a plethora of trash for the city’s scavengers to try and recycle to eke out a living. Abdul is not a scavenger, but a step above. He acts as a trader who buys the best goods from poor scavengers then makes a profit at recycling plants. He excels at sorting various trash into the specific categories that the recycling plants accept. With only a few years of school under his belt, Abdul expects to do this for the rest of his life.

On this night, Abdul has been accused of setting his neighbor, a crippled woman snidely called One Leg, on fire. Abdul can smell “One Leg” burning from inside the shed. He climbs up the trash pile as quietly as he can. Walls are thin in Annawadi and Abdul does not want to wake anyone with rattling trash. Abdul lays on a pile of cardboard and thinks about One Leg, Abdul’s neighbor for eight years who he does not like.

Abdul’s mother, Zehrunisa, also disapproves of One Leg because she wears perfume and lipstick. Abdul silently thinks that his mother does not always act properly either – Zehrunisa curses when she haggles for recyclables. Karam and Zehrunisa have nine children, but Karam is too sick to work. Thus, Zehrunisa must take on the unladylike job of providing for her family. Now that Abdul is old enough, he does much of the trading that has made the Husain family successful (by Annawadian standards). They make enough money to have a real brick wall between their home and One Leg’s shack.

One Leg’s real name is Sita. She has fair skin that should have made her quite a catch but her twisted leg put off all offers of marriage but one. Her family was happy to get rid of her, even though Sita’s husband is Muslim. Her husband renames her Fatima and the two have three daughters together. Fatima does not seem to grieve when her youngest daughter drowns in a bucket, which sets off gossip about her. Fatima does not seem to care about that either.

Abdul’s mind wanders to the current state of “wanting” in Annawadi now that people believe that they can better their lives immediately without waiting to be reincarnated into a better status. Abdul’s brother, Mirchi, is one of these people. Mirchi dreams of working at a luxury hotel as a waiter. Other people in Annawadi dream of medical miracles or escaping their families or getting enough to eat – even going to college. But One Leg is the craziest of these dreamers in Abdul’s mind, as she wants to be respected instead of seen as a cripple.

The police arrive in Annawadi, striking fear into the hearts of all the residents. They are strangely polite to Abdul’s family, simply relaying that Karam, Abdul, and Abdul’s sister Kehkashan have been charged with beating One Leg and setting her on fire. Abdul overhears the charges from his hiding place, knowing that their innocence doesn’t matter because the poor are always seen as guilty in Mumbai. The police officers lead Karam away as Zehrunisa sobs.

Abdul weighs his options, wondering if the police will return to look for him tonight. The other boys in the slum are more daring, raised on Bollywood movies that praise feats of bravery and strength. But Abdul prefers to be cautious, even if the other boys laugh at his fearfulness. Abdul knows how quickly fortunes change in Annawadi and thinks it pays off to be alert. Yet even Abdul had not foreseen that One Leg would burn herself.

Hours later, a woman named Cynthia, a friend to One Leg and rival to the Husain family in the garbage business, tries to convince people to help her look for Abdul and deliver him to the police. No one takes her up on it, and Abdul gets a few hours of sleep. He wakes again at dawn, cursing himself for not escaping Annawadi under the cover of night, and he decides to find his mother to ask her what to do. Zehrunisa tells Abdul to turn himself in at the Sahar Police Station. He runs there, hoping to save his father from a beating and proclaim his innocence. Abdul trusts that justice will prevail as he enters the station.