Sunlight on a Broken Column

by Attia Hosain

‘Do you know what is wrong with you, Laila? All those books you read. You just talk like a book now, with no sense of reality. The only cure for Nandi is to get her married quickly.’ ‘The cure for a good girl is to get her married quickly; the cure for a bad girl is to get her married quickly. Do you think of anything but getting married quickly?’

I felt curiously detached towards that glittering, scented bundle, no longer Zahra but the symbol of others’ desires.

‘I am not interested in theological arguments. But Sita’s attitude opened my eyes to the realities of the communal problem. What can you expect from a religion which forbids people to eat and drink together? When even a man’s shadow can defile another? How is real friendship or understanding possible?

‘A man’s love is no different from an animal’s. He takes what he can get, because he is not the one who has to bear the consequences. It is the injustice of the gods that a woman alone must be fearful.’