Summary
Chapter 4
Asghar goes out around 5pm. He passes a mentally ill woman on the street who’s naked and being mocked publicly. She turns to him for help but he avoids her. Entering a crowd, Asghar notices an old man looking at him with expectant, sad eyes. He begins to reflect on people throughout his life who he’s wronged or caused pain by refusing their love. He remembers an old man named Huzoor Ali, who, after Asghar refused to come to dinner at his place, cursed him to suffer in love. Asghar believes the curse has now come true, as he pines for Bilqeece.
He arrives at Bundoo’s house, but Bundoo is not home, nor is his cousin Ashfaq. Chanbeli, the maidservant, asks him if he would like to stay and see his sister-in-law. Looking for an excuse to see Bilqeece, he agrees. His sister-in-law inquires about his plans to marry, and he skirts the conversation, asking her about her head-cloth. She tells him Bilqeece made it and he begins to hyperfocus on the garment. To his dismay, Bilqeece does not show up, and he leaves.
He goes to visit his friend Bari, who is flying a kite on his roof. He asks Asghar where he’s been, to which Asghar responds cryptically with a poem about life’s difficulty. Bari returns to flying his kite, while Asghar sulks and reflects on life. Finally, Bari is able to get Asghar to admit his moodiness is a result of being in love with Bilqeece. Bari tries to reassure him that her family would happily accept him, but Asghar is unconvinced. Asghar remembers how he encountered her one day at Bundoo’s; their eyes met, and she darted off, embarrassed, and he had become lovestruck. He thinks of how his father and mother would react to him marrying a woman of a different race and caste—she is half Mughal while he is Saiyyed, a more refined bloodline thought to have descended from the prophet Mohammad. ari offers to get him some charms to help subdue his father’s conservatism, and though Asghar does not believe in charms, he acquiesces and gives him some money.
Chapter 5
Asghar’s eldest sister, Begam Waheed, is widowed with two children. She lives with her husband’s family in Bhopal because, though Islamic law allows for her to remarry, Hindu tradition dictates that she should not. Though separated from her own family, she has remained close with Asghar, who lived with her for many years.
After Asghar sends her a letter telling her, in vague terms, that he is in distress, she decides to make a trip to Delhi. This pleases both her parents; since she lives so far away, she only makes the trip back home around once a year.
While he waits for his daughter to arrive, Mir Nihal goes on about his daily routine. In addition to flying his pigeons, he works at a lace shop, which he has shares in. At night, he tells his family he is visiting a friend, but actually goes to see his mistress, Babban Jan. A former dancing girl, she has now become a personal employee of Mir Nihal, and lives in a house which he rented for her. His servant, Ghafoor, also sees dancing girls every night, but he is a good worker so Mir Nihal excuses the indiscretion.
Meanwhile, Begam Nihal, Begam Jamal, and Anjum Zamani do chores together and gossip. Mehro and Masroor often quarrel, especially when Masroor mentions Meraj, Mehro’s potential fiancé. Though she is excited by the possibility of marrying him, she does not want her desires exposed so publicly. When she rebukes Masroor by reminding him he is in her house, Masroor would become sad thinking about how his parents had died, and his aunt who raised him had left in Delhi for the sake of his education.
Chapter 6
Begam Waheed arrives, and the whole family comes together, excited by her presence. She is worried by Asghar’s slim frame and sulking manner.
After dinner, Asghar approaches her to discuss his conundrum. It is revealed that when Asghar was a child, Begam Nihal had experienced a mental breakdown when Dilchain gave birth to a son, which was rumored to be fathered by Mir Nihal. They reminisce about staying with their Uncle Bashir, and how even after their mother got better, Asghar was still sent to live with Begam Waheed once she had married and moved to Bhopal. Asghar thinks of that time fondly, but remembers receiving the letter that informed them of his brother-in-law’s death. Begam Waheed begins to cry as he recalls wondering what would happen to her children after they lost their father, and how her in-laws had blamed her for her husband’s death. Asghar remarks that they are the two unluckiest people in the world.
Finally, Asghar admits his dilemma to his sister. She tells him she thinks he could find a better girl to marry, but he insists he must be with Bilqeece. He feels he has allowed his father to control his life up until this point, and will not budge on this issue. He threatens suicide if he cannot marry Bilqeece, at which point his sister acquiesces and agrees to try to convince their father to agree to the match.
While Asghar is lamenting his predicament, he recognizes a singer in the distance as his childhood friend Hameed, and relates to the passion and ache of his performance. Hameed had gone mad when he came of marrying age, and had been sent to a group of qawwalis, musicians in the Islamic mystical tradition. Rather than curing him, however, their wild, fiery music intensified his condition, and he threw himself into performing with them. Asghar recalls how he had often seen Hameed talking with Budho, a pretty but unrefined low-caste girl. He understands how he could have gone mad.
Analysis
Chapters 4-6 mostly focus on Asghar, and his distress over his infatuation with Bilqeece. In his conversation with Bari, Asghar reveals the racial and class dynamics of Delhi society, as he describes why his parents would not accept Bilqeece as a match for him. Therefore, Asghar's love for Bilqeece can partially be interpreted as a sign of his rebellion against tradition which is also conveyed by his appreciation for English culture.
When he encounters the old lady being mocked on the street on his way to Bundoo's house, Asghar is confronted with a situation completely separate from his current predicament. Preoccupied by his crush on Bilqeece, he avoids helping her, displaying his solipsism. Later, after remembering the old man in Bhopal whose love he had repudiated, and the curse the man had subsequently put on him, he feels his selfishness has caused his present agony. However, even this moment of self-awareness is indicative of his solipsism, since he can only reflect on how his actions have affected others through the lens of his obsession with Bilqeece.
The introduction of Begam Waheed points to the plight of women in Delhi society. After her husband's death, she is obligated to stay with a family that is both hostile toward her, unfairly blaming her for husband's death, and to whom she is essentially a stranger. Though she no longer needs to serve the function of a doting wife and homemaker for the man of the house, she is unable to return to her real family. The story of Begam Nihal's breakdown also comments on this theme. Mir Nihal is able to conceive a child out of wedlock without taking a hit to his reputation, and his wife has no ability to take issue with his behavior, leaving her to go insane. While Begam Waheed is tied down to her husband even after his death, Mir Nihal can break the marriage covenant without consequence.
Mehro's embarrassment over hearing her fiance's name also shows how women are taught to be embarrassed of their emotions and desires, while Asghar can petulantly threaten suicide if his desires are not met. The qawwali performance at the end of Chapter 6 presents this mad pining for a particular woman from men is not just an aspect of Asghar's character, but an inherited and taught aspect of Indian culture.
