Page 29 - Leadership in the Indian Army

Mariam remembered him telling her that on the screen a human face

looked as big as a house, that when a car crashed up there you felt the
metal twisting in your bones. She pictured herself sitting in the private

balcony seats, lapping at ice cream, alongside her siblings and Jalil. "It's

what I want," she said.

Jalil looked at her with a forlorn expression.

"Tomorrow. At noon. I'll meet you at this very spot. All right?
Tomorrow?"
"Come here," he said. He hunkered down, pulled her to him, and held

her for a long, long time.

* * *

At first. Nana paced around the kolba, clenching and unclenching her
fists.

"Of all the daughters I could have had, why did God give me an
ungrateful one like you? Everything I endured for you! How dare you!
How dare you abandon me like this, you treacherous little haramil"

Then she mocked.

"What a stupid girl you are! You think you matter to him, that you're
wanted in his house? You think you're a daughter to him? That he's going

to take you in? Let me tell you something- A man's heart is a wretched,

wretched thing, Mariam. It isn't like a mother's womb. It won't bleed, it

won't stretch to make room for you. I'm the only one who loves you. I'm
all you have in this world, Mariam, and when I'm gone you'll have

nothing. You'll have nothing. You are nothing!"

Then she tried guilt.