Ammi used to work hard to meet the household expenses. Many new tailors had come to Karmo Deori. Ammi would get the cuttings of salwars from them and sew them. She would make twenty, thirty or at most forty rupees. Sometimes Ammi and the machine would start looking the same.

Then Yasir was born.

Nadia and I were born in the charitable hospital of Dhab. When Yasir was born, Abba got angry, 'He's just a baby, what's the need to go to the hospital?' Tejo the midwife delivered Yasir.

'The boy didn't cry', Grandma was worried.

'The boy cried!' Abba went out in a fit of joy.

What was Yasir? A boy named Naam! Lola! Suddenly a skeleton of bones! He would be made to sit here, he would roll there. If he was in his hands, he would have epilepsy. In six months, the joy of having a boy was gone! On the contrary, the additional burden of raising him fell on Ammi. When the children went to the first class, Yasir learned to walk. Delay always accompanied him.

Reluctantly, Ammi gave birth to another child. Nasir! Grandma's hands went up towards the mosque, 'Oh God! He had to come, now it's okay.'

And it was okay. Nasir, the perfect man!

At that time, the new custom of 'two children are good' was going on and Ammi's four-four! Which Grandma used to call God's blessing.

With Nasir, Ammi was in high spirits as if she had girded her loins to fight with life and Abba was in the liquor shop! Sometimes we would meet somewhere, sometimes somewhere else. The share of the factory kept going until Nasir completed his tenth and then Abba also started going. Nasir left school and started working.

Ammi arranged my marriage with the four scoundrels that she had arranged, and then Nadia's marriage. My husband was twelve years older than me, a divorced businessman! What else could a girl who had completed twelve get? Nadia's marriage was arranged with the brother of her friend Shabo.

Ammi was very keen that Shahzad uncle would give us priority for his sons, but where were the shiny tiles on the forehead of aunt and her newly built house? And where was the scar on Ammi's forehead, like the shingles of the house? Which was definitely the result of an earthquake.

Yasir could go to school for four classes. In the fifth, his face began to look youthful. Both his mind and body were helpless. Epileptic fits would strike anywhere. The doctors would tell him to keep taking pills. Ammi would seek treatment from a Maulvi Sahib for his illness. She would leave school and start taking him to the mosque. The Maulvi Sahib would give him water by mouth. Ammi would also ask someone to bring her water from the Darbar Sahib and drink it. She would rub her nose, offer prayers, and apologize for who knows what mistakes she had made. It seemed that even the Maulvi Sahib had become worn out.

The erratic Yasir would always cause some kind of harm. Breaking a teacup, breaking things in anger were common. If his mother would beat him, he would go to the mosque and sit.

If Darbar Sahib is the life of Ambarsar, then Khairuddin Masjid is the heart of the market. Our house behind the mosque, not ours but Abba's, is now Nasir's house. At every call to prayer from the mosque, the residents would start praying for their safety by knocking on the crumbling walls of the house.  

The house next door belongs to Shahzad Chacha, this house is a copy of our grandmother's and mother's house. Two rooms here and two there. 'Why should I live with this gambler? He will also risk the house one day!' And Shahzad Chacha separated from his brother Iqbal and went straight to Dubai and took his life.

Abba, in a fit of rage, snatched some of the pension accumulated by grandmother and mother and got a stake in a screw factory. In those days, Ambarsar was becoming a hub of small-scale industry. There were lathes everywhere. Leaving the inner city and heading towards Attari, apart from all the big colleges, cloth and dyeing factories were seen spread out. On both sides of the main road, the stalls with colorful clothes tied with ropes looked like a paradise. The burnt black rags spread underfoot would fly around in the wind, but still, the innocent children would play hide-and-seek in the stalls.

As always, Abba did not like this work either. He earned his living by gambling and drinking. He returned home empty-handed every day. His wife and children were on the run. Ammi would look at his face, then curse her fate. Grandma, fed up with Abba's superstitions, would threaten him with the Messenger of Allah, calling the house hell and Abba a devil. But what effect did it have on Abba? Abba drank more, cursing Yasir.

Yasir, Ammi's mortal enemy!  

I, that is, Fauzia, Ammi's first child, that too a girl. When I was born, Abba felt sorry. Uncle's two sons were born. Grandma accepted me by the grace of Allah. After a quarter of a year, Nadia was born. Abba fought a lot with Ammi. Grandma would cry out in repentance for the way Abba treated the picture of Kalme hanging in the room, touching her ears, telling how she had snatched the umbrella from Abba's hand, otherwise that infidel would have...!

Grandma, whose father had been martyred on the Burma front. A soldier in the British army. The daughter of an army mother, Grandma had worn saris from the beginning. Even today, she would wear a petticoat and blouse in summer and a thick shawl over it in winter. Grandma had grown old and her bed, which was just as old, had become so old. The bed, which used to be a bed, had now become so old that sometimes the grandmother lying in it was not visible. Grandma was alive, she was the support of the house. Grandma was the owner of half the pension of the deceased railway man grandfather. Nadia and I also started living in grandmother's room and there was a fight in the next room.

The birth of two girls had become a problem for my mother.

Nowadays, Abba was at a loss. Abba would be at the liquor shop by the time the Fajr prayers were offered. Ammi's bad luck would come to snatch the remaining money. The receipts of the beatings and slaps would be printed on Ammi's face in the morning. I wish Abba had not woken up in the morning. But where would the prayers be answered?