You lived intensely with others, only to have them disappear overnight, since the shadow class was condemned to movement. The men left for other jobs, towns, got deported, returned home, changed names. Sometimes someone came popping around a corner again, or on the subway then they vanished again. Addresses, phone numbers did not hold. The emptiness Biju felt returned to him over and over, until eventually he made sure not to let friendships sink deep anymore. Kiran Desai
About This Quote

The shadow class was a shadow government that only existed in the imagination of Biju. However, Biju lived in a time when immigration laws were very strict and immigrants from all over the world could be deported for immigration violations. In the short story, the shadow class is a way of representing all those people who were able to escape their countries, but could not make it back to their homelands again. For Biju, the idea of being part of a group that was forbidden from being together gave him a sense of belonging.

He felt that he was close to everyone else, but only because they were part of an organization that was forbidden from being together. This idea is also a metaphor for life itself where we feel close to others, but those people are part of our own social groups and we are unable to be together as a whole.

Source: The Inheritance Of Loss

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