Chapter 12 Summary

Dr. Azad is again a dinner guest at the home of Nazneen and Chanu. In between their respective speeches about drug abuse and the English atrocities against their colonies, he and Chanu trade pleasantries that are actually their way of scoring points over each other. They compete to see who has the best of their miserable lives. Dr. Azad continues to come to dinner at their flat, but he has never once invited Nazneen and Chanu over since the time they arrived, uninvited, over 13 years ago. Dr. Azad does not like to even discuss his wife and daughter (now married) because he is ashamed of them. Playing on this weakness, Chanu calls his "good girls" in to show off their poetry skills. Chanu is sensitive about his employment status and the mobile library which he never got started. Dr. Azad asks him about...