JAYA (12): A timid boy who is used to the warmth of a house and a mother who loves him. He is cheerful and is good in school. He likes to read and spends most of his spare time reading them in a corner rather than playing outside with his friends. He is rather introverted and keeps to himself most of the time. He has a friendly face that people like. He is not used to the outdoors, he gets sick easily, and has no skills for hard labour. He is neat, clean, and proper. Everything around Jaya must be in place (belongings and his own appearance). He dislikes fights, and is a responsible person. He is a little stiff and formal, and gets jumpy and awkward in new environments. He is attached to what he is familiar with (his clothes, his belongings, his books, his insect board, his pet cricket etc). He doesn’t like people tampering with his things. He dreams of being a scientist one day. He loves insects, and often studies them by collecting strange creatures and pinning them on a board.

Development: In the jermal, Jaya starts off being an outsider. He sticks out from the crowd because he looks, acts, and thinks different. He cannot work, he is tender, and he is educated unlike the other boys. Later he gains courage to escape. He decides he has nothing to lose, and this attitude makes him stronger. Personally, Jaya grows from being timid to being more self-assured. From being a naïve schoolboy, he learns the ways of the workingman. Externally, he becomes harsher and harder. From a timid outsider he develops into a surviving insider.

JOHAR (48): A harsh, strongly built man who is a loner. He has denied his past and lives for the day. He is authoritarian, needs his own space and doesn’t talk much. Since his wife’s betrayal, Johar is afraid of intimacy. As a result, he builds a wall around him and lets nobody in to show his inner self and vulnerabilities. He uses his hard shell to protect himself from hurt and pain. He doesn’t like to be touched or talked to and spends most of his time just giving instructions to the young boys at the jermal. He is paranoid because a dark past looms over him. This secret keeps him afar, detached, and aloof. He is an escapist, and anything to do with his past, he rejects (Jaya, letters etc).

Development: When he reads his wife’s letters after all these years, and sees his son becoming more and more like himself, Johar slowly changes from being a hard man with an outer shell that shies away from intimacy to someone more open to the truth, the past, and to his only son. By the end of the story, Johar becomes vulnerable and gives himself up to the past. Jaya touches him in more ways than one.

BANDI (45): The nothing to lose, relaxed Cook. He seems indifferent, but actually cares about what is going on around him. He is provocative because he is not afraid of Johar. He confronts Johar whether Johar likes it or not. He tries to draw Johar out of his dark hole by making him confront the past. Bandi is Johar’s only friend, and there is an intimate relationship between them. Bandi will do anything to confront and provoke Johar when it’s a necessity. He ties a towel around his neck at all times.

GION (17): He is the leader of the pack, always stirring up trouble on the jermal. He picks on people and has his followers do things for him. He is mean and has no empathy or compassion for others. He bribes, steals, kills, cheats, and sees nothing wrong with it. His attitude is: anything is legitimate in the name of survival.

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