Thirst

Thirst by Varsha Bajaj is a 2022 middle grade, contemporary fiction novel that follows Minni, a young girl from the slums of Mumbai, as she struggles to reckon with her community’s limited access to drinking water and uncovers an organized crime operation that steals water from the poor. Over the course of her journey, Minni challenges her own preconceptions about evil, learns about the various ways in which her community has been deprived of resources, and comes to appreciate her friends’ and neighbors’ joyful attitudes in the face of hardship. Bajaj is a native of Mumbai herself, though she currently lives in the United States, and was inspired to write Thirst after reading news headlines about the water mafia’s presence in her home city.

This guide refers to the 2022 Kindle e-book edition of the text, published by Nancy Paulsen Books.

Content Warning: Thirst contains age-appropriate depictions of poverty, classism, and violent crime, including murder.

Plot Summary

Meena, who is called Minni by her friends and family, and her older brother, Sanjay, live in a slum in Mumbai with their mother, Rohini, and father. Sanjay has dreams of becoming a professional chef, and Minni is a star student with hopes of pursuing a high-earning job. One evening, the siblings sit on a rooftop, gazing out at the harbor, and wonder how there can be so much water surrounding them but so little available in their neighborhood. They see that a fight has broken out near the main water tap and rush home so as not to get caught up in the chaos. At home, over dinner, their father reveals that the annual water supply is low and that they will likely have to start buying water, a concerning development given how little money they have. Rohini reveals several things: that a new computer class is being offered at the community center; that Minni’s education is being paid for by her wealthy employer, Anita; and that Anita’s daughter, Pinky, gave Rohini a mango that the family can share after dinner.

Soon, the family learns that a close friend and neighbor of theirs was one of the men involved in the fight near the water tap. Minni struggles to understand how water can be so beautiful but also such a source of conflict. After school one day, Minni, Sanjay, and Minni’s neighbor and best friend, Faiza, run into Sanjay’s friend Amit, who offers them a ride in the fancy new car that his Uncle Ram drives as a chauffeur. Inside, they are amazed by the luxurious materials. Ram makes a stop near some train tracks, and while he is gone, the children notice a mysterious water tanker truck that appears to be stealing water from the municipal pipes. The boys exit the car to investigate but are chased down by the mafia boss overseeing the tanker. Sanjay and Amit barely make it back into the car and reveal to the girls that one of the mafia workers is their neighbor Ravi. Ram is furious with the boys and scolds them for not acting more wisely.

Word begins to spread that Ravi has been talking about Sanjay and Amit in town, so it is decided that the boys should leave Mumbai to protect them from the mafia. They will stay on a family farm in Delhi and call whenever possible. Minni is distraught to see Sanjay go. She throws herself back into focusing on school. An important test is coming up that will determine whether she will graduate next year. She is surprised to hear that Sanjay sounds happy when they speak on the phone; the farm has all sorts of fresh vegetables, and he is improving his culinary skills. Just as she is beginning to adjust to this new normal, Rohini falls ill and decides to leave the city for her health. Before leaving, she teaches Minni how to make roti so that Minni can fill in for her as Anita’s servant. If Minni does not do an adequate job, Rohini will likely lose her job. Suddenly, Minni is required to “grow up.”

Minni quickly finds herself overwhelmed by all the household chores she has to do in addition to her schoolwork. To make matters worse, she starts her job at Anita’s but is scolded for not making good enough roti. In the morning, she is barely able to make it to school on time because she needs to collect and boil the day’s water beforehand. At work, Pinky tries to befriend Minni, but she only distracts her from her chores and gets her in trouble with the wealthy family’s grandmother, who disapproves of Minni because she is low caste. Amid all of this responsibility, Minni also learns that she got a spot in the community center computer class. She becomes enthralled with the exciting new language of computers and temporarily forgets her troubles. However, she soon realizes that the practice exam is fast approaching, and she is not prepared.

The practice test goes poorly, and her consistently late attendance record catches the attention of the principal, who decides that if Minni shows up late, she will not be allowed to attend class for the day. Despite her best efforts, Minni finds herself missing more and more school. One day, she goes to shadow Latika, an older neighbor and friend of Sanjay’s, at her job selling magazines. Minni sees how hard Latika works for such minimal rewards, and Latika makes her promise to refocus and pursue her dreams of higher education. The same evening, they learn that Ravi was found murdered in a gutter, likely because of his involvement with the water mafia. She returns to school determined to succeed.

At her job, Minni is told that Pinky’s father will be joining the family for dinner and that she should be ready to make the best roti possible. Again, her roti is rejected as subpar. When she is called into the dining room to help serve dessert, she is shocked to see that Pinky’s father is the mafia boss whom Sanjay and Amit saw stealing water. She is so afraid that he might recognize her that she drops her bowl of pudding and is dismissed from the house immediately. She runs home and immediately tells Faiza what she has learned. The two girls begin to form a plan to turn Pinky’s father into the police.

Minni trepidatiously returns to Pinky’s house, and Anita tells her that one more mistake will cost her mother her job. Minni finds herself increasingly angry to see the luxury the family lives in by profiting off of stolen water. In Pinky’s room, she makes a split-second decision to steal a photo of the father from Pinky’s large collection of family photos. Back at her father’s cafe, she notices that a group of police officers come to eat every evening. The next day, she slips the photograph with the label “water thief” into one of the officers’ bags while they are distracted by the antics of the neighborhood dog, Moti.

The doctor at the local clinic informs Minni that Rohini has been diagnosed with Hepatitis A but that the disease is curable with a simple vaccine. Rohini returns shortly, and she brings Minni to Anita’s house one last time to say goodbye. When they arrive, they see police cars everywhere. They watch as Pinky’s father is arrested and escorted out of the building. Even though Minni has helped to achieve justice, her mother loses her job because Anita and Pinky leave Mumbai shortly after his arrest. At the same time, Sanjay decides to stay in Delhi. His cooking has caught the attention of a local chef there, and he is going to start an apprenticeship in the restaurant. Similarly, Rohini decides that she will start her own business making roti instead of starting another job as a servant for a wealthy family. With some hard work, Minni passes her final exam and looks forward to eighth grade.