Summary
Lenny spends hours looking from the roof at the women in the “fallen women” house. Some are returned to their families and so there is a constant stream of new women. Lenny wants to know about Hamida’s own children whom she is not able to see. She misses them but their father would not want her to see them. Lenny again is angry at what she sees as an injustice on the part of men. Hamida instead blames “kismet” or fate. Lenny instead believes that people can change their own fate. In response to this, Hamida tells Lenny a long story about a prince who was eaten by a tiger. This is only one of Hamida’s many “unusual and depressing little tales.”
In the story, a king and queen have no children. They pray for a son and visit holy men. One night the king has a dream in which a holy man tells him that they will have a son, but as punishment for the king’s bad karma the son will be eaten by a tiger at age sixteen. The son is born and the king and queen do everything they can to improve their karma. They distribute food and wealth to the poor. They also have all tigers killed in the kingdom and nearby. When the prince is 16, he is confined to the palace. One day he falls asleep and has a terrible dream. When he wakes up, he sees a hunting scene that was painted on the ceiling. The terrible tiger painted there comes to life for a moment, just long enough for the son to die of fright.
Lenny does not like this tragic story and tries to critique it by saying it is logically inconsistent and unrealistic. Finally, she just admits that what happened to the prince is unfair. Hamida responds that this is the point: fate is always unfair.
Then a noise comes from the kitchen. Imam Din has a caught a cat that comes into the kitchen frequently to steal food. The cat is writhing and crying out. Just at the moment Mother comes home and demands that Imam Din let the cat go. She begins hitting him with a fly-swatter until the large man finally notices. She scolds Imam Din for tormenting the small creature. For the rest of the day, Imam Din is in a bad mood. Mother tore his clothes and he is covered in small bruises. Mostly, he is mad that he was hit with something as demeaning as a fly-swatter.
At the end of the chapter, Lenny mentions a moment when Father talks directly to Mother. This is becoming increasingly rare at home. In addition, the search for Ayah seems to be off. Mother no longer goes looking for her; when she takes the car out it is to take out cans of petrol.
Analysis
One major issue that Hamida and Lenny disagree about in the conversations is fate. Hamida believes that bad things happen to a person because of their fate. She is resigned to this and thinks that nothing can be done. Lenny, in contrast, argues that one can control their own fate. Particularly when it comes to bad things happening to women either by their husbands, fathers, or society at large, she thinks it is not inevitable. In this way, Lenny has a more modern and even somewhat feminist way of understanding the world. Her arguments suggest that calling things fate is a way to avoid changing them. At the same time, stories about people’s tragic fates affect her. Hearing about the prince being killed by the tiger shakes her belief, so she is forced to argue to Hamida that her story is either unrealistic or unfair.
