Summary
Godmother likes to help people when they need it. She has now decided to visit Ayah. Lenny cannot believe it and wants to come. Godmother refuses, so Lenny asks whether Ayah can come to them. Though Ice-candy-man, Ayah’s new husband, will let her come, she is too ashamed to meet all of them. Lenny wants to comfort her and show her that there is nothing to be ashamed of and that it is not her fault. Slavesister returns with a tonga carriage. Godmother gets mad because the horse urinates in front of the house. As they fight, Lenny realizes that Slavesister is more frequently calling Godmother by her name, Roda. Slowly she is trying to get into a more dominant role and Godmother does not always push back. Godmother begins dressing in her best sari to visit Ayah. She decides to take Lenny along.
Godmother and Lenny ride the tonga to the old city. They see naked babies tottering around and some shops in the bazaar. What Lenny most notices are the young women in the street with short hair. They act like men rather than polite women. None of them are veiled. They are bold and wear make-up. Some look like they have just gotten out of bed.
Godmother and Lenny make it to Ice-candy-man’s home. He is polite, dressed up, and continues reciting pieces of famous poems. He says he will bring Mumtaz, which is Ayah’s Muslim name. She has converted to Islam. The house is colorfully decorated and so is Ayah. She is dressed in high heels, gold bangles, jewelry, and pearls. She has on make-up and lipstick. Lenny had expected she would jump on Ayah the moment she saw her but instead holds back and stares at her. Her eyes are wide with grief. When Ice-candy-man goes to bring tea, Godmother asks Ayah to lower her veil so she can see her face. She finally speaks, whispering: “I want to go to my family.” Lenny notices that her voice is now harsh, “as if someone has mutilated her vocal cords.” She says that Ice-candy-man is looking after her now, but she refuses to live with him. Godmother tries to tell her to make the best of things. He cares for Ayah and she is married now. She says it is fate and cannot be undone. However, Ayah says that she cannot forget what has happened. When Godmother says that this is just the way of life, Ayah responds “I am past that… I am not alive.” Ayah says she will go to her family whether they will take her or not.
Ice-candy-man comes back with tea and gives popsicles to Lenny. Ayah shows her discontent by refusing to drink tea. Ice-candy-man begins quoting poetry that shows him in the role of the unfairly treated lover. When he gets up again, Ayah gets on her knees and begs Godmother to get her out and away from Ice-candy-man. When he returns, Godmother asks how long Ayah has been “emptied of life” like this. He begs Godmother to help him convince Ayah that he will make her happy. Lenny is caught between thinking of him as a monster who has killed Ayah’s spirit and as a grieving man who is deeply in love and deserves for his lover to treat him better.
Ayah tells Cousin about the visit to Ayah at the first opportunity. He wants to hear about everything she saw in the Hira Mandi red-light district. He is disappointed by the story, hoping to hear more juicy details about dancing-girls and prostitutes. He says that if Lenny had gone there at night she would have seen more. She might even have been raped, he says. Lenny does not know what this means. She wants to know what goes on in a Kotha or brothel. He describes the Kotha as the cultural heart of the city. This is where poets are inspired and girls sing songs. Some of them even move from the Kotha to being actresses. It is like a finishing school. Lenny wants to know about pimps too. Cousin says that they protect the girls, introduce them to men, and manage their money. Lenny thinks that she now understands the powerful “creative force” in the Kotha that transforms men into poets, but she does not understand why everyone whispers about the place and why the girls in the street seemed so different from properly raised Muslim women. She still has many questions, but Cousin will tell her no more.
Analysis
Ayah’s situation again brings up themes of fate and shame. Ayah does not want to visit because she feels ashamed of having been forced into prostitution. Lenny feels that women in this situation should not be ashamed because it is not their fault. Godmother, in contrast, thinks that what is done is done. What happened to Ayah was fate and she should forget the past and try to be happy in her marriage. Ayah cannot forget what Ice-candy-man has done and insists on going to her family, even if they will not accept her after what has happened. Thinking of Ayah, Lenny’s grief brings her to maturity. She is haunted by the empty expression in Ayah’s face: “Where have the radiance and the animation gone? Can the soul be extracted from its living body?” Thinking of her grief, Lenny thinks, “I have never cried this way before. It is how grown-ups cry when their hearts are breaking.”
At the same time, she still does not quite understand what has happened to Ayah. She is not aware of what sex is, or exactly what the men did to Ayah after she was kidnapped. Even Cousin’s explanation of the Kotha left out the fact of sex. Instead, she sees what happens in the red-light district as giving inspiration: “I have an insight into the potent creative force generated within the Kotha that has metamorphosed Ice-candy-man not only into a Mogul courtier, but into a Mandi poet.” She understands some things but is still missing the full picture. She is able able to sympathize partly with Ice-candy-man. She sees him as a “deflated poet.” Both he and Ayah are suffering: “while Ayah is haunted by her past, Ice-candy-man is haunted by his future.” He is scared of what will happen if Ayah is no longer in his life.
