Harvest

OM

Twenty years old, he has been laid off from his job as a clerk and is the breadwinner of his small family. He is of medium height, nervy and thin. He would be reasonably good-looking if not for his anxious expression.

JAYA

Om’s wife. Thin and haggard, she looks older than her nineteen years. Her bright cotton sari has faded with repeated washing, to a meek pink. Like the others, she is barefoot at the outset. She wears glass bangles, a tiny nose-ring, ear-studs, a slender chain around her neck. No make-up aside from the kohl around her eyes and the red bindi on her forehead (the colour indicates that she is married).

MA

Om’s mother. She is sixty years old, stooped, scrawny and crabby, wears a widow’s threadbare white on white sari. Her hair is a straggly white.

JEETU

Om’s younger brother, seventeen and handsome. The same height as Om, he is wiry and conscious of his body. He works as a male prostitute and has a dashing, easy-going, likeable personality.

BIDYUT-BAI

An elderly neighbour, very similar in appearance to Ma, but timid and self-effacing. Also urchins and the crowd outside the door. The crowd is audible rather than visible.