The novel really starts to pick up the pace in part II. There is a lot of action and this part seems to be the climax of the book, portraying a lot of conflict. In this part of the book, I was impressed by how accurately Doctorow portrays culture in some of the scenes, especially in the Indian scenes. I am from the subcontinent and I know the culture pretty well. What surprised me is that a lot of the cultural terminology and language used is very subtle and only people that have been immersed in culture can see that. Many of the conversations sound like they were taking place in hindi and were translated. The conversations between the Indians is written in a different style than the conversations between two English-speaking people. He uses a lot of slang language and a lot of the scenes, like the bike ride, seem to be real. So, either Doctorow talked to a desi (subcontinental) friend or maybe he even went to India or one of it’s neighboring countries and observed the culture. I wasn’t expecting this level of detail in the book because I thought it would be about the technical gaming culture. Actually most books that I have read which refer to a subcontinental culture are rarely this detailed about depicting the culture accurately.

I thought the bike ride with Yasmin and Ashok was very realistic. I just went to Pakistan over the winter break and over there a lot of people ride scooters.Like Doctorow mentioned in his novel, there are actually entire families sitting on these tiny scooters. During my visit, I remember one of my relatives and I were looking at one of these scooters while driving home. There was a husband, wife, child, and baby all riding on one scooter and I remarked how scary it was for all of these people to be sitting on basically one seat. He also refers to a lot of Bollywood “fillum”  (yes, that’s how desi people pronouce it)culture. It’s all very true. Young people often romanticize their day to day activities by imagining themselves being the “filmy hero.” I’ve seen it everywhere. Young house maids are singing along to Bollywood songs, they dress up, and they go about their mundane tasks while being stuck in their fantasy, Bollywood inspired world. It’s funny because they know Bollywood inside, out, a lot better than I do. Doctorow also mentions the  “badmash” culture a lot, and this concept is huge in the youth. Badmash means “shameless” and it refers to shameless young men that go prying after girls and are troublemakers. If someone calls you “badmash” it’s a huge insult to your honor and respect.

It’s just hard for me to believe that Doctorow reflects the Indian culture from an “insider’s” point of view. This is the last novel where I would expect this from. 🙂