Of White Hairs and Cricket (Analysis)

The main focus of the short story, “Of White Hairs and Cricket” by Rohan Mistry is the routine life of a young Indian boy he narrative technique used is interesting as the boy himself is the narrator, giving the passage his perspective and point of view.  The writer establishes the significance of the narrator’s discovery of illness, which a friend’s father is suffering from, through various ways. The discovery by the boy is not solely about the illness but the entire realization that the sheltered world he has always lived in is not reality and that pain and suffering exists; people age and nothing remains the same. The story portrays the emotional difficulty of a young boy when he sees his father as a mortal being.  The significance of this discovery is put across through the sudden change in the tone of the story, the gradual build up of his sheltered life before his discovery, the imagery of Viraf’s (his friend) father lying sick in bed and the change in the atmosphere which the boy witnesses at his friend’s house. 

From the beginning, the narration of the story is seen to have a rather innocent or immature tone to it as it is being told from the perspective of a young boy. He describes in length the quality of life he and his family have, focusing on minor, local details which make the story more personal and real. The boy complains innocently of his dull task of pulling out his father’s white hair every Sunday and the tone of innocence continues to exist when we read of him remembering the days when his father used to play cricket with him. Overall, the tone is that of sweet innocence, happiness and shows content with the quality of his life. Similarly, the start of the passage shows him as excitedly waiting for his friend, Viraf, to go play or spend the day together. The light tone is evident as he is yodeling and waving at his friend. His thought process is young, light-hearted and humorous as he notices his friend’s well-mannered behavior towards a guest doctor and refers to it as “muskaa-paalis” (buttering someone). Also, his rapid and active movement while waiting for his friend shows a young and enthusiastic energy. He “cracked” all his fingers, and then walked towards the other end of the compound, “sitting on the steps for a few minutes”, “got impatient and climbed upstairs”. All these activities show his energetic happiness. 

Then suddenly the tone of the story changes into that of shock or a difficulty to explain the situation he was experiencing. When he goes up to Viraf and insists on playing something and when Viraf finally agrees despite his dull mood, they go to Viraf’s house which is where realization begins to dawn over the boy about the reason behind Viraf’s strange behavior. He sees Viraf’s father lying sick, in bed, his mother worried and saddened, talking to neighbours about the difficulty the family was going through.