How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Title.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Inside Gita's family's hut, it is daytime at night.
But for me, it feels like nighttime even in the brightest sun without my friend. (2.BeforeGitaLeft.5)
Gita only appears at the beginning of the novel. She was Lakshmi's first friend, and the friendship they have is the ruler against which Lakshmi measures her friends in Happiness House. Also, the second line foreshadows the despair Lakshmi will spiral into when, one by one, the friends she makes at Happiness House are forcibly pulled away from her.
Quote #2
One day Shahanna comes to my room, bearing a cup of tea and a leftover heel of bread. She slips a small plastic package into my hand.
"Don't let Mumtaz see this," she whispers. (86.TheDangerofProtection.1-2)
Already, even in Lakshmi's darkest days when she first arrives at Happiness House, people who have experienced the same thing she is experiencing demonstrate compassion toward her. And this compassion and kindness make Lakshmi's life more bearable. What would her life be like without the kindness of others?
Quote #3
Harish throws back his head and laughs.
And I laugh, too.
It is strange to laugh after all these months, odd and unfamiliar.
But somehow, not hard at all. (118.Don'tCrosstheCook.4-6)
Harish is teaching Lakshmi words, partly because of her love of learning but also because a tentative friendship is developing. Why might the laughter between the two of them be weird to Lakshmi, and also not weird to her?