Heart Lamp: Selected Stories

While the first two stories were about the tension between appearances versus reality in a person, these stories explore the tensions that arise from social relationships and the responsibilities that people have to each other. In these stories, Mushtaq reveals how the social settings of community and family are fraught with contradictory needs.

In “Black Cobras,” a woman fights to ensure that her husband takes responsibility for the children he has abandoned, which speaks to The Problem of Gendered Violence in the Family. Mushtaq heightens the narrative stakes by putting the life of the youngest child, Munni, at risk. With Munni’s health in danger, Yakub’s refusal to support his children underscores the moral bankruptcy of his character. Nevertheless, everyone in the community who could support Aashraf—from the mothers hearing the gossip that opens the story to Amina—fails to act against the abusive power structure until the conflict has already reached its breaking point.

The story considers the growing need for feminism through the character of Zulekha, but also uses her dynamic with Aashraf to underscore the limitations of theory against practice. Zulekha, who is a member of the upper class and is highly educated, pontificates on the need for women to demand justice from the patriarchy. While her ideas resonate with the issues that women like Amina are facing in their lives, they are not completely effective in galvanizing Aashraf, a working-class woman who serves Zulekha, to action: “Zulekha Begum began giving a passionate lecture. Aashraf nodded her head, disappointed. She did not want any of this” (52, emphasis added). Aashraf is instead driven by personal stakes, believing that as an individual, she may not be able to upend the power structures she lives in, but that, at the very least, she can fight to save the life of her youngest child. The gap between Aashraf and Zulekha’s understandings of women’s rights and capabilities thus speaks to the importance of a cross-class, intersectional feminism that is accessible and rooted in practical solutions, with Aashraf’s disappointment and confusion with Zulekha’s “lecture” speaking to a failure of communication. 

It is only after Munni dies that the women in the community are galvanized to rise up against Abdul. They become disillusioned with his religious influence and openly curse him, believing that his actions are an affront to Allah. Amina likewise vindicates herself by pursuing her tubal ligation procedure whether Abdul likes it or not, embodying the ideals of Zulekha’s lecture on feminism. The story, however, leaves Aashraf in a state of resigned peace as she recognizes that Munni no longer has to suffer an unjust world. This, more than anything, is the story’s biggest indictment against social relations within neighborly communities. She mourns the loss of her child, but also sees death as an escape from a longer life of suffering for Munni—a conclusion that speaks to the vulnerable and difficult lives women like Aashraf lead. 

Yakub’s biggest ally is undoubtedly Abdul, who abuses his role as mutawalli by downplaying the importance of Aashraf’s case and delaying it for as long as he can, which invokes the theme of The Importance of Reforming Religion for Modern Society. Aside from catering to Yakub’s needs, Abdul is also trying to maintain his reputation as someone the community fears. When Aashraf first delivers her petition to Abdul, Abdul looks around and is pleased when he sees the women fleeing as he makes his way through the street. This suggests that the women have the collective ability to upset the balance of power in their community, but fail to because they are intimidated by Abdul’s position in the mosque. By offending him, they believe they risk offending Allah, which none of them want to do. The story implies that such unthinking subservience to human religious leaders can, ironically, result in people violating the moral and ethical values their faith urges them to uphold.  

In “A Decision of the Heart,” Mushtaq plays with the tense dynamics that arise from patriarchal marriage, while also speaking to The Inextricable Link Between Patriarchy and Capitalism. Yusuf’s position as the household’s sole breadwinner, with Yusuf running the fruit shop while the women stay at home, entirely dependent upon him, exacerbates the conflict between the two women, with Akhila interpreting Yusuf’s economic support of his mother as a threat to her own standing within the household. Yusuf’s domestic abuse of his wife whenever arguments become too heated also speaks to the problem of a household where power dynamics are fundamentally unequal, as Yusuf can abuse his wife with impunity while she must seek other, more indirect ways of trying to assert herself. Akhila’s targeting of, and resentment toward, Mehaboob Bi speaks to the ways in which women in patriarchal societies are often conditioned to view one another as competition instead of allies. 

Yusuf is equally devoted to his wife and his mother, but finds himself torn when Akhila demands attention that excludes Mehaboob Bi from his life. Yusuf’s interests contradict one another: He does not want to be seen as a poor husband to Akhila, but neither does he want be a poor son to Mehaboob Bi, whom he feels he owes a life debt to after she committed herself to raising him with care. Mushtaq uses a story-within-the-story to foreshadow the final decision Mehaboob Bi makes when she realizes what Yusuf is doing. In the fairy tale, the mother engages in an act of self-sacrifice to ensure her son’s happiness. The fact that the mother’s heart continues to talk to the son as he delivers it to the queen likewise foreshadows the guilt Yusuf feels over giving Mehaboob Bi away.

The ending implies that Mehaboob Bi’s departure will irreparably affect Yusuf and Akhila’s relationship. Using the fairy tale as an allegory for the story, Akhila is framed as an antagonist akin to the wicked queen. This makes Yusuf’s curse at the end feel like retaliation for all of his dilemmas throughout the story. At the same time, it underscores how fraught their relationship has become. Yusuf’s bitterness will continue to haunt Akhila for the rest of her life, given his implicit wish to die ahead of her so that she can one day be in the same vulnerable position the widowed Mehaboob Bi was left in.