Summary

In Chapter 2, during a gathering of students at Ehsaan’s home one evening, Ehsaan talks about his past. As a young man, he became interested in the division between India and Pakistan, and he left his village to help Muslim refugees escape to Pakistan. Kailash thinks of his grandmother who recently died, and he begins to think of himself and Ehsaan almost as exiles from India. Kailash then thinks of the exiles to Pakistan, and he thinks of his own nearly complete lack of belongings from India. One day, Kailash attends an on-campus protest against George H. W. Bush’s apparent intentions to invade the Middle East. The protesters view such an action as a neocolonial attempt to seize control of the Middle East for its oil reserves. Ehsaan speaks at the protest, citing other 20th-century examples of governments pursuing war for the sake...