WHAT HAPPENS IN

CHAPTER 3?

•The chapter opens with the conversation of Aliya – the

narrator of the story and Samia – the cousin of the narrator.

•Samia is planning to return to America “to get a Master’s in

Education” and Aliya questions her thoughts.

•Aliya uses her native language at times to give a conversation

a desi touch, she uses pigeon English such as savaal (pg.

19).

•Through Samia Aliya conversation we also get to know a little

about Samia.

•Samia is known to be “the historian in the family.”

•The age difference of Aliya and Samia is almost of four years as Samiaputs it “Aloo, when I was eighteen… you were fourteen.”

•Aliya gets to share her letters from Dadi that she receives when she had the first week at college.

•The letter of Dadi exposes the royalty and proudness of her family and the noble character of Dadi is once again revealed in this chapter.

•The relation of Aliya and Dadi is also revealed when Aliya says to Samiathat “…she wanted me to study history. So I didn’t.”

•Then the family routine of Fridays is also showed off.

•We also get to know about the narrator’s great-grandfather’s children whom she called “the triplets, those not quite twins.”

•The culture made by this royal family, the superiority complex of this family is again shown by the selection of names of these triplets.

1. Sulaiman the Magnificent,

2. Akbar the Great,

3. Taimur, sometimes called Taimur Lang or Tamburlaine.

•“Taimur…was the most beautiful of the brothers, while Akbar was the most dashing and Sulaiman the most charming.”

LANGUAGE• Aliya – narrator of the novel uses pigon English several times, such as,

“the bloody chhipkali practically attacked him.”, “Jo bhi”, “Arre”, “sawal”, “gharara” etc (chap.2).“Savaal” (pg.19, chap.3) and “Imli” (pg.21, chap.3) (about which she herself searches to find the English translation of it).

• Simple language is used as no complex words are worn out to impress the readers with her vocabulary skills,

• Letters of Dadi are also displayed and the character of Dadi also uses pigon English to emphasize a particular meaning such as,

“Fakhr and Nazish” (pg. 20, chapter 3).

• Samia is planning to return to America “to get a Master’s in Education” and

Aliya, like any other concerned Pakistani relative, questions her thoughts.

• Aliya uses her native language at times to give a conversation a desi touch,

she uses pigeon English such as savaal (pg. 19)

• Her reciting the story of Imli and Aloo puri with carrot pickles also gives us the

culture and foods of Pakistan, specifically of Karachi.

• The use of nickname by Samia for Aliya “Aloo” also shows us the culture of

Pakistan where people give their relatives a pet name.

• The 1st letter of Dadi also lays a light on the culture where she somehow

separates the two cultures.

• Doing the opposite as you told to do, as Aliya says: “Saying she wanted me

to study history. So I didn’t.”

• The assigning of names to the children under the influence of the Kings.

“Sulaiman the Magnificent, Akbar the Great, and Taimur, sometimes called

Taimur Lang or Tamburlaine”

Cultural TRADITIONS/ HISTORY

chapter 3

• The children getting excited about about their

birthdates,

• Playing of sitar,

• Superiority of Dard-e-Dil palace lost it’s tradition

of never becoming servants as Taimur Hind did.

CHAPTER 2:

•Dadi wears ghagra,

• There lies a confusion of Yak’s milk being green

which has been declared as green because

Great-Grandfather said so.

• Food like gol guppas, nihari and naans are

mentioned.

FEMINISM

•Aliya is shown to be a feminist as she herself says that

“As a feminist I feel I should object to the Taj story.”

• Taj is shown to be a unfeminist person as she “…bury those Dard-e-Dil umbilical cord” and hands her triplets to the Dard-e-Dil family and left them forever without questioning or fighting for her right.

• Dadi seemed to be an anti-feminist as she takes Nawab as a Zues even when he raped Taj’s mother.

“But it really sums up Dadi’s view of royalty. The Nawab as Zeus; I mean, consider the implications. She thinks he was a god. And he wasn’t even a Nawab when he raped Taj’smother…”

ALIYA in chapter 2:

• The narrator of the novel,

• Shows very expressive personality by

showing her ability of story telling,

“At college I was famous for my

story-telling abilities…” (pg.18)

• Talkitive,

• Samia and she are first cousins

having understanding with each other.

AL

IYA

IN

CH

AP

TE

R 3

: • She’s starts the chapter by questioning her cousin

like a concerned relative about her planning of

going abroad,

• Her perceptions of Samia changes when Samia

“pulled on a pair of rubber gloves”

• She’s been disclosed as a historian by Samia,

“Aloo, when I was eighteen you knew as much

about history as I did. And you were fourteen.”

• She wasn’t close with her Dadi as any other

person,

“… she wanted me to study history. So I

didn’t.”

• In chapter 3 we get to know a little about Samia

too,

• She wishes to go to America for her Masters in

Education,

• She’s close to Aliya,

• She a historian.

• Dadi is the main character of the novel,

• She’s the one who values her family’s royalty,

• She takes Nawab as Zeus without thinking that he has

raped a woman,

• She’s the one who takes pride of her identity,

• She is shown as an anti-feminist person.

• She’s wears ghagra when entering into Aliya’s great-

grandmother’s bedroom “looking like a deep-fried shrimp

with wide, embroidered cotton trousers in place of a

tail…”

• Dadi like any other grandmother cares a lot about her family

traditions,

• She sends the letter to Aliya on the first week of her at

college reminding her about her family background,

• She asks Aliya to study history which Aliya opposed

showing a bitter relationship between the two,

• She gets shocked by the letter of Taimur in which he states

that he has become the slave of Englishmen and never

forgets about it.

TAJ AND HER MOTHER IN

CHAPTER 2:

NAWAB AKBAR IN CHAPTER 2: