Seven by Farzana Doctor

Author:Farzana Doctor [Doctor, Farzana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FICTION / Literary
ISBN: 9781459746411
Publisher: Dundurn
Published: 2020-07-24T00:00:00+00:00

THIRTY-FOUR

Bombay, 1902

Abdoolally stood before his mother’s grave. Hers was the first and only burial in the yard beside the modest Khar mosque he had built for her a decade earlier. He visited her weekly, offered prayers, but today, he wished for her counsel.

Would she have agreed with the amil’s advice to divorce Zehra and send Rumana to her grandmother in Dholka? With no woman in the house, it seemed like the correct thing to do.

Mummy had liked Zehra, but had passed away a few months into their marriage. She hadn’t witnessed their spats that became a daily occurrence. She wouldn’t have predicted the near catastrophe that ended the union. But then, neither had he. Perhaps if he’d spent more time at home, been less occupied with work …

And now, since he’d given up one business to the clergy, he’d buried himself in his expanded India Stationery Mart to recover from the loss.

He stared at his mother’s name, engraved into the stone in Arabic. The amil had instructed it be inscribed this way, but Abdoolally couldn’t read Arabic. Hardly anyone could! Now he wondered why he hadn’t argued with the amil and insisted on Gujarati.

“Did I do the correct thing about Zehra, Mummy?” The wind rustled the leaves of a nearby date palm, as though in response to his query. He looked up to watch them sway against the pink of the evening sky. He shook his head at his own sentimentality; he wasn’t a man to look for signs from heaven.

In the year that had passed since he’d evicted Zehra, he’d questioned whether he’d failed to consider other options. Could he have avoided the divorce? Might the scandal have blown over? Had he reacted too rashly, allowed his emotions to guide his decisions?

Returning home, he retired to his library. He randomly pulled a book from the shelf, Elements of English Grammar, the text Zehra had read cover to cover. In their two years together, she had gained a decent fluency and had incorporated English into Rumana’s education, as well. The book fell open to page ninety-five, an explanation of verb tenses.

The past perfect is used to refer to a time earlier than before a certain time.

He didn’t like to dwell in the past, imperfect as it was.

He closed the book, slid it back into place on the shelf. Except for the shuffling feet of his servant, the house was silent. He’d seen his daughter Rumana only twice in the last twelve months. Perhaps it was time to look for another wife, and bring Rumana home.

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