The Night Diary

In the only entry not addressed to Mama, Nisha writes about the violence she witnessed on the train. She directs whoever should find her diary to send it to Kazi. Nisha says to the reader of the found diary: “Please remember us. Please remember the way it used to be when India was whole” (233).

Two weeks have passed since Nisha’s last entry. She wants to tell the story of their journey but stops because writing about it makes her feel sick.

Days later, Nisha tells the story of the train being on route, when men blocked the tracks and boarded the train. Passengers huddled beneath the seats while the conductors, trying to defend the train, ran through the car screaming and wielding knives. Men nearly entered Nisha’s car, but the conductors beat them back and sent the fight outside. Nisha watched Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs, fighting each other, incurring life-ending injuries, and dying on the ground in front of her. The Hindu men who survived returned to the train, and it began moving. Nisha, unable to make sense of the violence she’d witnessed, passed out. She awoke to Amil shaking her, saying they’d made it to Jodhpur.

The family arrives in Jodhpur. They’re staying in a one-room flat that Papa’s brothers arranged for them. It is dark, and the water only runs for a few hours a day, but they clean it up and know it is only temporary. Nisha misses home but is mindful that they are fortunate to have made it to Jodhpur alive. She counts her blessings: safety, a roof over her head, and her five cousins, who live nearby. Nisha misses Kazi and considers him to have been her only real friend. She has bad dreams as a result of the horrors of the train, and while she wishes they would stop, she is mindful of “the thousands of people [who have] died crossing the border both ways” (241). She feels like a terrible person for complaining, but she is angry for over having to endure such upheaval and violence.

Nisha and Amil have started school. She is still not talking and feels bad for shutting Amil out. Papa is more understanding and tries to help Amil with his school work. Papa also begs Nisha to talk. He apologizes to her with “tears in his eyes” and tells her he is “sorry if he treated her too harshly” (233). Nisha has never seen Papa this way and believes it’s better for everyone if she does not talk. Nisha pats Papa on the shoulder and writes on a scrap of paper that she is okay.

Nisha now does all of the cooking with no protest from Papa or Dadi. Cooking is the only thing that makes Nisha feel better, and “nobody cares anymore if [she grows] up to be a cook” (243). On the radio, Nisha hears it is Gandhi’s birthday and that “he spent the day fasting and spinning yarn […] Gandhi wasn’t joyous. He was heartbroken because Hindus and Muslims were still fighting and killing one another” (244).

Nisha meets a girl at school who follows her around but also does not speak. They attend class and eat lunch together. The girl smiles at Nisha, but Nisha won’t hold eye contact; it scares her. Nisha wonders if the girl has experienced the same violence, she has, or worse. Nisha wants to talk to her, but she can’t. She wishes the girl would leave her alone. Nevertheless, Nisha is happy to be back in school and enjoys doing school work again.

Nisha writes that something has happened, but she won’t say what it is. She is afraid she is dreaming and that if she writes about it, she might wake up. Whatever it is, Nisha believes it is a gift from Mama.

Nisha tells the story of coming home from school to a man squatting in their alley. He was “skinny and filthy, his hair and beard overgrown and matted” (247). Amil and Nisha do not recognize the man, but he says their names and looks Nisha in the eyes. She recognizes him and whispers, “Kazi” (247). The three of them hug in a tearful reunion. Kazi is dehydrated and in need of medical care. Amil runs to get Papa while Nisha helps Kazi inside. Dadi sees Kazi and begins to cry then gives him rice and water. Papa comes home and examines Kazi and then helps him get clean. Kazi reveals that Dadi had been writing letters telling him where they were. Dadi says, “it’s a miracle” (249). Amil asks if Kazi can stay with them, and before he can say “because he is Muslim,” Papa interrupts and says, “He’s family” (250).

Kazi presents the family with a folded piece of canvas he’d ripped from the frame and carried with him from Mirpur Khas. It is a piece of Mama’s painting of the hand holding the egg. It is smaller, but it is of the hand and the egg. “[It] was a piece of [Mama], brought to [Nisha] from the ashes of [her] old life” (251). Papa is grateful; tears form in Papa’s eyes when Kazi gives him the piece of the painting. Papa has the painting reframed, and it hangs it on the wall over their table.