Chapter 3 revolves around a conversation between the narrator, Aliya, and her cousin Samia, who is planning to pursue a master's degree in education in America. The chapter explores family dynamics, cultural traditions, and feminism, revealing insights into Aliya's relationship with her grandmother, Dadi, and her reflections on family heritage and identity. Aliya's use of Pidgin English adds a desi touch to the dialogue, further illustrating the cultural context of their discussions.

1. 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.

2. •Samia is known to be “the historian in the family.”
•The age difference of Aliya and Samia is almost of four years as Samia
puts 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 Samia
that “…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.”

3. 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).

4. • 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

5. • 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.

6. 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’s
mother…”

7. 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.

8. ALIYA IN CHAPTER 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.”

9. • 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.

10. • 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…”

11. • 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.

12. TAJ AND HER MOTHER IN
CHAPTER 2:

13. NAWAB AKBAR IN CHAPTER 2: