Rukmani believes that her seven children should be able to learn how to read and write and that it is a good skill to have even if one does not use it. Early on in the novel it is revealed that Rukmani was taught how to read and write by her father, and she plans to teach her future children as she was. Nathan, her husband, however does not agree. This is a sign that represents the coming of the modern world. Rukmani responds to this by teaching her sons how to read and write, with that Selvam goes to work with Kenny, “I am no farmer”, he said... “Kenny is building a hospital, when it is ready he will need an assistant, and he has offered me a job.”...Study came to him naturally; he wrote and read as I had once done, avidly, with pleasure”
