Chapters 6, 7 and 8 Summary

Jasmine was born in a hut in Hasnapur, Punjab, India, in a bountiful harvest year, and had she been a boy there would have been much celebrating. Girl children are burdens to peasant farmers in this country, and many families end up penniless from providing dowries. Jasmine grows up to be a smart girl and goes to school for six years, which is three years longer than her sisters are allowed to attend.

Jasmine's village consists of farming people. This is different from the Lahore area, where her family lived before the Partition Riots drove people away. A few families have some modern conveniences, but mostly the families exist on grains and live in mud huts. Jasmine has had the opportunity to study some hygiene in school and tries to implement some procedures to sterilize the family's water supply.

Dida, Jasmine's...