Summary

In Chapter 28, Smita tells Mohan about the civil unrest, caused by religious discrimination in Mumbai, when she was a child. Her parents were non-zealous Muslims who participated in secular culture and lived in an interfaith building. When the assaults against Muslims began in the city, her mother and father decided to hide in their Christian neighbor’s apartment across the street. Smita and her brother were bored in the confines of the small flat and called their old neighbor to come over and visit. A gang of Hindu thugs arrived at the apartment shortly after and dragged Smita and her brother onto the street calling them “spawns of the devil” (220). The children struggled to fight back against the men and the large mob that encircled them. When their father returned home he found the men publicly molesting his children and agreed...