Page 143 - Leadership in the Indian Army

duties.

"It's under control. You go on now, girl, and do something else. Leave

your mother be."

Shooed away, Laila felt useless. She bounced from one room to the
next. She puttered around the kitchen for a while. An uncharacteristically

subdued Hasina and her mother came. So did Giti and her mother. When

Giti saw Laila, she hurried over, threw her bony arms around her, and

gave Laila a very long, and surprisingly strong, embrace. When she
pulled back, tears had pooled in her eyes. "I am so sorry, Laila," she

said. Laila thanked her. The three girls sat outside in the yard until one

of the women assigned them the task of washing glasses and stacking
plates on the table.

Babi too kept walking in and out of the house aimlessly, looking, it
seemed, for something to do.

"Keep him away from me." That was the only time Mammy said

anything all morning.

Babi ended up sitting alone on a folding chair in the hallway, looking

desolate and small Then one of the women told him he was in the way

there. He apologized and disappeared into his study.

* * *

That apternoon, the men went to a hall in Karteh-Seh that Babi had
rented for the fatiha. The women came to the house. Laila took her spot