Nadia turned around her eyes blazing. Quiet! My brother-in-law doesnt know anything about it! She hissed Tell Abdul Ill come on Tuesday. She ran after her sister and Jamal watched disconsolately as they piled into the small car and drove away. The sun seemed less bright the sky less blue. Jamal felt a twinge in his chest and regretted immensely having eaten those peanuts in the cinema. They always gave him heartburn. Somewhere in his mind he realized that pretty girls in burqas who played with mens emotions and ran them up against their brothers were as difficult to digest. He couldnt help the gnawing thought that maybe Nadia was more trouble than she was worth but an equally urgent feeling inside him told him that he could not give up the pursuit just yet. The look in her eyes when hed asked her to come to the movies again the bright smiles that shed bestowed on him the eager way she laughed at his jokes all convinced him that she was as good as his. And she wouldnt have come out with him if she hadnt intended to show him how she felt about him. After the date Jamal made his way back to Tariq Road. He was drained by the outing and all its unexpected twists and turns. He let the men in the bus shove him around; usually he would have fought them back and abused their sisters and mothers but now he felt none of that fight in him. Alighting from the bus he walked along the sidewalk in the evening twilight which never lasted very long; a few calls to prayer the sun quickly slipped beneath the horizon and within fifteen minutes everything had become dark. But the lights on Tariq Road glimmered and shone enticing everyone to feel happy at least for a little while making them believe that life on the street could be a fairyland if you had enough cash in your pocket and some good friends to spend it with.
AUTHOR: BINA SHAH was born in Karachi but spent her early years in Virginia and completed her later education in Massachusetts. She studied at Wellesley College and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She has worked as a journalist and is well known for her writing on the South Asian Web site Chowk. Her first book a volume of short stories called Animal Medicine was published in 2000. Her novel Where They Dream in Blue was published by alhamra in 2001. This is her second novel.