The Space Between Us

The Space Between Us (2006) is a novel by Thrity Umrigar following the lives of two Indian women from vastly different backgrounds—wealthy and educated Sera Dubash and Bhima, Sera’s older and uneducated domestic worker. The novel uses the extreme socio-economic gap between the two women to explore themes of India’s Social Fabric of Class, Caste, Gender, and Religion, the Misogyny and Abuse in Relationships woven into India’s patriarchy, and the use of Education as a Vehicle for Social Mobility.

Thrity Umrigar is an award-winning Indian American journalist, writer, and professor. She has penned novels, children’s picture books, and a memoir. Born and raised in India, she arrived in the US when she was 21, where she has lived and worked ever since. Several of her books have been best-sellers, including her first novel, Bombay Time (2001), The Space Between Us, and its sequel, The Secrets Between Us (2018). The Space Between Us was also a finalist for the PEN / Beyond Margins award (“Contact & Bio.” Thrity Umrigar).

This guide is based on the 2011 Harper Perennial Edition.

Plot Summary

Bhima is a 65-year-old domestic worker for a wealthy Parsi woman named Sera Dubash in Bombay (current Mumbai). Despite their different backgrounds, both women have led troubled lives with shared marital issues. The narrative recounts their stories in flashbacks interspersed throughout the present day.

Bhima’s husband, Gopal, was a factory worker, and had an accident while working with faulty machinery. He lost three fingers on his right hand. While Gopal was in the hospital, the accountant at the factory tricked Bhima, who can’t read, into signing a contract that entitled Gopal to only a single lump-sum payment of 1,000 rupees (about 12 USD today). A devastated Gopal begins drinking heavily, rendering him unable to hold any other job.

The family struggles to make ends meet with only Bhima and her daughter Pooja working. They are forced to move out of their apartment in the chawl and into a nearby slum. Tensions rise when Bhima finds Gopal at the liquor bootlegger’s, having left their sick son, Amit, alone at home. Furious, Bhima repeatedly hits Gopal with a broom, and Gopal beats Bhima. Five days later, he leaves Bhima for good, taking Amit with him; she never hears from either of them again.

Bhima single-handedly raises Pooja. Pooja eventually marries and moves away to Delhi when her husband, Raju, gets a job there. When their daughter, Maya, is seven, Raju and Pooja both die of AIDS. Bhima brings Maya to live with her. When Sera sees how intelligent the young girl is, Sera takes responsibility for her education. Sera puts Maya through school and helps her get into a college.

Sera married Feroz Dubash in her late twenties. The first years of her marriage are spent living with her husband’s parents. Early on, Sera realizes that her mother-in-law is cruel and bad-tempered, which Feroz inherited. Raised by gentle-natured, cultured, and well-educated parents, Sera experiences years of physical and emotional abuse from her husband and his family. When her daughter, Dinaz, is still young, Sera takes her daughter to live with her own parents. Feroz’s father, who loves Sera dearly, buys a second apartment for the couple to live in separately, away from Feroz’s mother, and begs Sera to return. Feroz’s abuse continues within this separate home, and the only person who knows the truth is Bhima.

Feroz’s father passes away and his mother has a stroke that leaves her paralyzed. Shortly after, Feroz dies of a heart attack. Dinaz and her husband, Viraf, move in with Sera, who has become lonely and reclusive. Sera continues to oversee her mother-in-law’s care, despite how much she hates her mother-in-law.

The book begins a couple of years after Feroz’s death. Dinaz is pregnant and so is 17-year-old unwed Maya, who has dropped out of college because of her pregnancy. Bhima confides in Sera, who thinks abortion is the best way out. Bhima wants to try and find the father and see if he can be persuaded to marry Maya and give her a respectable life. Maya eventually names one of her college classmates, but when Bhima confronts him, she realizes that Maya lied about him being the father.

Viraf asserts that they must get Maya an abortion as soon as possible. He gets a recommendation for a doctor from one of his friends. Maya finally agrees on the one condition that Sera be the one to accompany her for the procedure. Sera agrees and is surprised to find Maya uncharacteristically sullen and bitter toward her.

Months later, Maya continues to be withdrawn, refusing to resume her studies or even find work. Bhima begins taking her to the seaside for chaat to cheer her up. On Maya’s insistence, Bhima tells her stories from the past, including Gopal’s accident and Raju and Pooja’s deaths. She also tells Maya about an Afghan balloon seller who used to sell his wares on the seaside when Amit and Pooja were younger. Bhima always wondered how he felt about leaving his home and family. Bhima wishes she had asked him the secret to living with loneliness.

On one evening out, Bhima and Maya encounter Sera, Viraf, and Dinaz, who are also out to satisfy Dinaz’s chaat cravings. Bhima notices that Viraf looks guilty when interacting with Maya and realizes that he was the father. She angrily confronts Maya, who in turn accuses Bhima for assuming Maya to be the guilty one and apportioning no blame to Viraf. Bhima softens and Maya finally tells her the whole story: When temporarily working as a caretaker for Sera’s mother-in-law, Viraf unexpectedly arrived one evening. He was agitated and angry with Dinaz, with whom he had fought, and approached Maya. After they had sex, he told Maya that she did a bad thing by tempting and taking advantage of him when he was weak. Viraf told her she shouldn’t tell anyone else what happened, leaving Maya feeling ashamed and remorseful.

Filled with hate for Viraf, Bhima decides to confront him and breaks down crying instead. She realizes she will never tell Dinaz and Sera the truth. They have always been good to her, and she doesn’t want to hurt them. Shortly after, Viraf accuses Bhima of having stolen money, and in her anger, Bhima inadvertently tells the truth about Viraf and Maya in front of Sera. Sera immediately dismisses Bhima, forbidding her from ever returning to the household for dishonoring her family. Heartbroken, Bhima visits the seaside and remembers the Afghan balloon seller, imagining his voice soothing and comforting her. Her pain disappears, and she feels a newfound sense of freedom. The novel ends as Bhima watches the sea, resolving to face the future for Maya’s sake.