ANALYSIS OF OF WHITE HAIRS AND

CRICKET – ROHINTON MISTRY

Summary

This Sunday is no different from any other. The protagonist who is the fourteen year old younger
son of a Parsi family is removing the white hairs from his father’s head using tweezers. While he
does that, his thoughts wander. He notices the shabby room in which they are with its peeling
plaster. There is not much money and they make do with old things.

The father scans the Sunday papers for job opportunities. He wants to appear young so that he
might get selected for a job. That is why he does not want any grey hair visible. In spite of his
hardships, the son and the father share a loving relationship. The arrival of the Mamaiji, the
boy’s maternal grandmother sets off another diversion. She does not approve of her son-in-law.
She thinks it’s wrong to have the boy pluck the white hairs from his father’s head; it will invite
bad luck. The grandmother disapproves of her daughter’s cooking too. She feeds the
protagonist, who is her favorite grandson, with spicy food which though he relishes, does not
agree with his delicate constitution. This causes arguments in the family.

The mother, a long suffering individual, struggles with an old kerosene stove that flavors all the
food with the smell of kerosene. His thoughts lead him to remember the days when his father
took him and his friends to play cricket at the Chaupatty. Suddenly he abandons the hair
removal and walks away to read the comics which come with the Sunday paper. His father
wants him to continue but he walks away. Comics read, he saunters off to visit his best friend
Viraf. But Viraf is busy helping the Dr. Siddhwa who has come to make a house call. The
protagonist does not know why and he engages Viraf in casual banter. Viraf tells him that his
father is sick.
The protagonist is guilt ridden at the flippant way in which he had spoken to Viraf when he father
had been sick. He is filled with remorse at having abandoned his task of removing the grey from
his father’s head. Though chocking with grief, his adolescence does not let him cry or express
his love for his father and his friend.

Metaphorical inferences

The story begins and ends with references to white hairs. White hair is metaphor for old age and
infirmity. The protagonist’s father had been fit enough to take his son and his friends to
Chaupatty to train them in cricket. But those days are gone now. Everywhere there are
suggestions of mortality. Viraf’s father is very sick and the family fears for his life.
On the other hand, cricket summons memories of fun-filled days when the boys played cricket
at Chaupatty in the company of the protagonist’s father. Since the day the father felt a touch of
discomfort while playing, cricket has been discontinued.

Main themes

Main themes in the story are the insecurity that advancing years bring, the loss of happier times
when life was carefree and the privations caused by lack of money. The narrator’s father is
finding it difficult to get a job because he is no longer young; he tries to stop time by having all
the white hairs on his head removed. The narrator longs for the days when he and his friends
used go with his father for a game of cricket on Sundays.

Characters

The narrator

The narrator remains nameless throughout the story. We see the happenings in the lower
middleclass Parsi household through his adolescent eyes. The protagonist has immense love
for his father but is tongue-tied when it comes to expressing his feelings. Viraf is his best friend
but with him too he finds it difficult to say sorry. He has a nonchalant way of talking that is meant
to mask his real emotions. He is a much loved younger son; see the indulgence Mamaiji shows
him. At the end his remorse is not that things are changing fast in his neighborhood, friends are
losing fathers disturbing the status quo that existed. His remorse is for not being able to cry his
heart out, or for not being able to hug his father.

Daddy

The protagonist’s father is one of those people who always look and sound positive even the
cards are stacked against them. He knows that he cannot defeat time by having the white hairs
of his head removed. He is jobless at the moment but hopes that something will come his way
soon. He is a loving father who desperately hopes to provide money for his family. He does not
want Percy to be disturbed as he is in college now. He wants his younger son to be able to go to
the US to study. He hides his disappointments so that his family stays cheerful. It’s only with his
mother-in-law that he argues. Even with her there is no ill-will but he does not like the idea of
living under the same roof as her.

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