How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"I am French," he replied, admiring the dew on his half-raised glass, "I am gay, I am Jewish, and I am a criminal, more or less in that order. Bombay is the only city I have ever found that allows me to be all four of those things, at the same time." (1.2.151)
Didier's response is snide, as usual, but he's pointing to the fact that all cultures and countries are intolerant of certain traits and combinations of traits. He might be able to be gay and Jewish in French, but he probably can't be a criminal as easily there as he can in Bombay, for example.
Quote #2
The evening crowd of tourists from Germany, Switzerland, France, England, Norway, America, Japan, and a dozen other countries thinned out, giving way to the night crowd of Indians and expatriates who called Bombay home. The locals reclaimed places like Leopold's, the Mocambo, Café Mondegar, and the Light of Asia every night, when the tourists sought the safety of their hotels. (1.4.20)
The divide between day and night at Leopold's and other bars isn't just between foreigners and natives. It's between tourists and locals. Lin includes the exiled foreigners, the expatriates, among the locals, because they aren't just visiting. They have inserted themselves into Mumbai culture.
Quote #3
"Oh, I don't know. It's the right place for me, if you understand what I mean, and I knew that on the first day, in the first hour that I came here. So, in a sense, I was comfortable from the beginning." (1.4.144-145)
Karla is clearly not originally from Bombay. Her language and looks give her away as European. However, she is so exiled from her origins—seemingly disconnected from any family or roots—that she is able to feel comfortable and at home in her adopted city and country.
Quote #4
Whenever he spied men and women strolling on the road, he sounded the horn to draw their attention, gesticulated with his thumb to indicate the foreigner in the rear of the bus, and slowed to a crawl, so that each pedestrian could examine me with satisfactory thoroughness. (1.5.156)
Lin's exile in India isn't so noticeable when he's in the gigantic, cosmopolitan city of Bombay. But when he goes out into the countryside to visit Prabaker's village it's harder for him to blend in. He sticks out like a sore thumb, and becomes a tourist attraction in his new homeland.
Quote #5
As I walked along the narrow rag-and-plastic lanes of the slum, word spread that the foreigner was on his way. (1.8.56)
When Lin moves into the slum, it's like an exile within an exile. Not only is he unable to return to his native country of Australia because of the prison sentence awaiting him there, but also, when he loses his money, he's unable to pay his way in the expat scene in Bombay. He is exiled to the impoverished slum, where he must once again try to make a home for himself.
Quote #6
Look at the big, strong foreigner, saving himself, and running away from the fire, while our men run towards it… (1.8.77)
On Lin's first day in the slum it is engulfed in flames. He still hasn't settled in or made friends. He's still an exile, and it would be easy for him to just bail. But he imagines the opinions of the slum-dwellers and, in that moment, joins them. It's like he's shaking off his exiled nature and joining a community.
Quote #7
As we got out of the car I heard the cop say loudly, The gora speaks Hindi? Bhagwan save us from foreigners! (2.9.130)
Nobody expects Lin to speak Hindi, because they usually take him for a tourist who's just in Bombay to see the sights and head home after a couple weeks. His adopting the local language is part of accepting that he is exiled, unable to return home, and must make his home from scratch.
Quote #8
Feared and shunned, the lepers formed themselves into mobile slums that settled, within an hour, in any open space they could find, and made a traceless departure in even less time. (2.10.98)
The lepers are even more exiled than the foreigners who come to live in Bombay, because they are unable to really ever settle anywhere. They are outcasts, and their disease causes so much fear and revulsion that, no matter where they go, they will soon be exiled.
Quote #9
They were all, we were all, strangers to the city. None of us was born there. All of us were refugees, survivors, pitched up on the shores of the island city. If there was a bond between us, it was the bond of exiles, the kinship of the lost, the lonely, and the dispossessed. (2.16.129)
Nobody belongs in Bombay so, in a way, everybody belongs in Bombay. Here we see that exile provides a figurative common ground, bringing the cast-offs together through the bond of shared experience.
Quote #10
I've known men like Khaled in prisons, on battlefields, and in the dens where smugglers, mercenaries, and other exiles meet. (3.22.3)
Lin equates exiles with smugglers and mercenaries that meet in "dens," which really doesn't sound so good, we've gotta admit. This unfavorable look casts the exile as a criminal. In fact, being exiled is a form of punishment, so his comparison isn't all that far off.