The permanent marring of Shoba’s physical appearance is symbolic of the trauma of being cut off from home and culture. The pair have held on desperately to their traditions as a means of feeling comforted and protected in an unfamiliar context, but the reality of the diaspora is that there is no real place for them. The further away they get from their home and history, the more the image of their prominence fades. Appearances were all they had left, and now that too is forever blemished. Without the assurance, no matter how illusory, of something to fall back on, the two are diminished in Salim’s eyes, their carrying on no different than the passivity Salim sought to escape in the first place.