The Best at It

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of anti-gay bias, bullying, and mental illness.



That night, Rahul is woken by Bhai communicating on their two-way radio. As they watch Bollywood, Bhai asks if Rahul is worried that someone will break into the house, as he saw him locking the door earlier. Rahul creates excuses for his behavior.

Rahul insists that they talk about something else, so Bhai tells the story of how Rahul’s grandmother started engineering school. She was from a small village in India and defied the odds of the time by testing into the school as a woman. At school, her mostly male classmates hazed and bullied her, but she studied and became the top student. When someone from an important engineering firm visited and asked to hire the top student, the teacher refused to tell him who the student was. Rahul’s grandmother stood up and said that she’d be honored to work for their firm. They hired her, and suddenly, everyone wanted Rahul’s grandmother to be their friend. The story taught Bhai that “[i]f you dedicate yourself to something and become the best at it, then nobody can stop you” (63-64).