Page 104 - Leadership in the Indian Army

"What's going to happen?" she asked him now.

Rasheed shot her a sidelong glance. He made a sound between a sigh
and a groan, dropped his legs from the table, and turned off the radio.

He took it upstairs to his room. He closed the door.

* * *

On April 27, Mariam's question was answered with crackling sounds and

intense, sudden roars. She ran barefoot down to the living room and
found Rasheed already by the window, in his undershirt, his hair

disheveled, palms pressed to the glass. Mariam made her way to the

window next to him. Overhead, she could see military planes zooming
past, heading north and east. Their deafening shrieks hurt her ears. In

the distance, loud booms resonated and sudden plumes of smoke rose to

the sky.

"What's going on, Rasheed?" she said. "What is all this?"

"God knows," he muttered. He tried the radio and got only static.

"What do we do?"

Impatiently, Rasheed said, "We wait."

* * *

Later in the day, Rasheed was still trying the radio as Mariam made rice
with spinach sauce in the kitchen. Mariam remembered a time when she

had enjoyed, even looked forward to, cooking for Rasheed. Now cooking

was an exercise in heightened anxiety. The qurma% were always too