64 pages • 2-hour read
Heart Lamp: Selected Stories
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Stories 5-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence, gender discrimination, religious discrimination, emotional abuse, and suicidal ideation.
Story 5 Summary: “Red Lungi”
Unable to stand the rowdiness of her children and their cousins at the height of summer vacation, Razia arranges for all the male children in the family to undergo khatna (Islamic circumcision). She spares no expense in preparing for the ceremony, acquiring several meters of red cloth to fashion the lungis (men’s skirts) that the boys will wear after they have been circumcised. Since there is so much leftover cloth, Razia expands the ceremony to allow the boys from poor families to join the khatna for free. Many come to register their sons. The lungis meant for Razia’s family members are heavily decorated while the surplus lungis remain simple and unadorned.
The khatna is held after the afternoon prayer in the madrasa near the mosque. A professional circumciser and part-time barber named Ibrahim comes to conduct the procedures. He is reputed to be so skilled that the wound heals instantly after the removal of the foreskin. One of his assistants, the educated Abbas, meekly suggests sterilizing the knife. Ibrahim and his other assistants laugh him off for his naivety.
The first boy to be circumcised is a young teen named Arif. He is older than usual for khatna because his mother couldn’t afford the procedure in the past. The assistants grapple him, encouraging him to pray instead of fighting his way to escape. Finally, Ibrahim removes Arif’s foreskin and sprinkles ash over the wound to stop the bleeding. Arif drifts in and out of consciousness during his recovery and is allowed to go home when his mother picks him up. Razia’s husband, Latif Ahmad, gives him a bag of recovery goods on the way out. Arif assures the other boys that the procedure does not hurt. A man gives him 50 rupees as a reward for undergoing the procedure. This further encourages the other boys to proceed with their circumcisions.
At one point, a woman in tattered clothes arrives with two children. She tries to offer her boy for circumcision. The boy is very resistant. He explains that he has already been circumcised, so his mother clarifies that it was done improperly the last time. Latif Ahmad has the boy inspected and assesses that the boy’s claim is true. The men who are present laugh the boy and his mother away. Afterwards, they comment that the mother is despicable. This makes Latif Ahmad feel bad and he regrets not giving her anything anyway.
As the day comes to an end, Latif Ahmad thinks ahead to his children undergoing circumcision with the local surgeon. He has been anxious about getting them circumcised, despite Razia’s insistence on having it done earlier. Before they arrive, the children are dressed in opulent clothing and are given hundreds of rupees, as well as resplendent jewelry to mark the occasion.
Another woman in old clothes approaches Latif Ahmad and asks for her one-month-old son to be circumcised. Though he worries about what the crowd will say, Latif Ahmad gives the woman 100 rupees. The woman leaves at once, though this does little to absolve Latif Ahmad’s guilt over the first woman. He pushes the thought away by imagining many other women coming to do the same thing.
Latif Ahmad brings his children to the surgeon, who administers anesthesia to minimize their pain. The procedures are fast and uneventful. The children are brought home and looked after by helpers who give them medicine to facilitate their recovery.
One day, Razia sees Arif climbing up the guava tree in the yard to pick fruits. He scales and descends the tree without difficulty. To Razia’s surprise, Arif’s wound has completely healed, as if he did not undergo khatna at all. The same cannot be said for Razia’s son, Samad, who experiences an infection in spite of antibiotics. Arif reveals that he hasn’t taken any medicines and just recovered naturally.
Razia is distressed that Samad remains in recovery. Arif, meanwhile, vanishes from Razia’s sight. When Samad falls out of bed and injures his head, he is admitted to the hospital. A week later, the family throws a grand feast to celebrate the children’s ritual bath. Samad, though released from the hospital, remains weak.
At the feast, Razia spots a fully recovered Arif, who has discarded his lungi for tattered trousers. Razia laments that the poor are more blessed than the rich. Noticing the state of Arif’s clothing, Razia gives him a pair of clothes from Samad’s bureau and bids him to wear them whenever he comes to eat. Arif is moved by the gesture and holds the clothes tightly to his chest.
Story 6 Summary: “Heart Lamp”
Mehrun returns to her family home with her nine-month-old baby, much to the shock of her family. Mehrun is crestfallen that neither her father nor her mother welcomes her. She informs them that she has come without her husband, Inayat. This scandalizes them further.
Mehrun confirms that she left Inayat’s house without notice. She points out that Inayat has been away for a week, but she knows nothing of his whereabouts. She references a letter she sent them, in which she had confided her suspicion that Inayat was having an affair with a nurse. Even if they believed her, her family notes that they cannot do anything about it since Inayat can simply take the nurse as a second wife or divorce Mehrun. Mehrun weeps and criticizes her family for forcing her to end her studies and marry. Meanwhile, Inayat freely commits infidelity, unbothered by the scandal it causes.
Mehrun’s mother encourages her to draw Inayat back with her love. Mehrun argues that she cannot respect him if he continues to disrespect her so wantonly. Mehrun’s brother Amaan suggests that Mehrun’s anger caused Inayat to cheat on her, which angers Mehrun. Mehrun points out that Inayat is not as noble as they make him out to be. On one occasion, he forced her to stop wearing a burkha, which goes against her upbringing.
Mehrun threatens to live apart from her family once she leaves Inayat, so that she doesn’t have to be a burden to them. When the family decide to take her back to Inayat’s house, Mehrun threatens to self-immolate. Her brothers point out that it would have been more honorable to do the act than to threaten them with it, before reminding her of her responsibility to her children.
Mehrun turns despondent when her family tries to get her to eat and calls a taxi to take her back to Inayat’s house. Teary-eyed, she enters the taxi without saying goodbye to her parents. She continues to think about her brothers’ words on her threat of self-immolation. Amaan and their other brothers accompany Mehrun to Inayat’s house.
They arrive at Inayat’s home, where Mehrun is greeted by her eldest daughter, Salma. Salma attends to Mehrun, helping her to rest in her bedroom and eat until Inayat finally arrives. Inayat exchanges pleasantries with Mehrun’s brothers, then asks Salma to bring Mehrun down. Mehrun refuses to come out, so Salma explains that she is sleeping. Inayat comes to the bedroom to see her and is immediately filled with revulsion. He orders Salma to convince Mehrun to stop embarrassing him, insinuating threats of divorce if Mehrun refuses to get up.
Mehrun prepares lunch for Inayat and her brothers, which Salma serves. Before leaving, Amaan instructs Mehrun to take responsibility for her husband’s behavior. He promises to return in a week to check on her situation. Inayat leaves the house shortly after Mehrun’s brothers depart.
As evening falls, Mehrun feels that the lamp in her heart has long been extinguished. She wonders who she has to live for. In the early days of their marriage, Inayat laughed off Mehrun’s longing for education. Mehrun thought that the death of Inayat’s parents would allow her to spend more time with him. He soon underwent an appendectomy, however, which is how he met the nurse he is now having an affair with. The longer his affair continued, the more viciously he insulted Mehrun at home.
When her children are sleeping, Mehrun is seized with feelings of despair and emptiness. A framed photograph falls and shatters, but she does not bother to clean up the mess. She stands next to a sleeping Salma and says in her heart that Salma should be a mother to her siblings. She then brings a can of kerosene to the yard and pours the kerosene all over herself. Inside the house, Mehrun’s baby startles Salma awake. Salma goes searching for Mehrun and finds her in the yard.
Bringing the baby with her, Salma rushes to embrace Mehrun and begs her not to die. Mehrun drops her matches. Salma insists that she and her siblings want to be with Mehrun and cannot bear the idea of being made orphans by her death. Salma’s comforting touch, which feels like that of a friend, convinces Mehrun to return the embrace and apologize for her actions.
Story 7 Summary: “High-Heeled Shoe”
A man named Nayaz Khan is envious of his brother Mehaboob Khan and his sister-in-law, Naseema, who migrated to Saudi Arabia and occasionally return home with luxury goods. In spite of the many gifts Mehaboob gives Nayaz, Nayaz is obsessed with Naseema’s high-heeled shoes. He constantly fantasizes that Naseema will leave them behind, allowing him to give them to his wife, Arifa.
He spends most of Mehaboob’s visit plotting to take the shoes away, but ultimately resolves to ask Mehaboob and Naseema for the shoes before they leave. This plan makes him so anxious that he becomes sick. He fails to take Mehaboob and Naseema to the airport the following morning, which saddens Mehaboob. Naseema taunts him over his brother’s abandonment, causing Mehaboob to distance himself from Nayaz.
Two years later, Mehaboob announces that he will be visiting again for two months. Although Mehaboob asks Nayaz what he wants from Saudi Arabia, Nayaz fails to ask him for shoes for Arifa. Nayaz takes on extensive debts and preoccupies himself with renovating their ancestral house in time for Mehaboob’s visit. His intention is to impress Mehaboob with his business acumen. The renovations mean, however, that Nayaz will need to interfere with some long-standing features, like cutting down the mango tree in their front yard. Nayaz realizes he can turn a profit on the land where the tree stands, which will help him to repay the debts incurred for the renovation. In its place, he constructs a cellar and two shops. He also expands the house, retiling the floor and giving the guest room an en suite bathroom.
Naseema hears rumors of the renovation and uses them to taunt Mehaboob. When they arrive in India, they quietly proceed to stay in Naseema’s maternal house instead of Nayaz’s. Mehaboob becomes temperamental since he cannot resolve his feelings over Nayaz’s actions. Naseema lets his irritation build so that he can redirect it toward Nayaz when they reunite.
When Mehaboob does not arrive as expected, Nayaz wonders what happened to his brother. As soon as Nayaz learns that Mehaboob is staying at Naseema’s maternal house, Mehaboob arrives and is shocked by the absence of the mango tree. Childhood memories rush back to him, making him sad enough to wish for death. Naseema quips that Nayaz has taken Mehaboob’s share of the estate, which causes Nayaz to realize that Naseema has been turning Mehaboob against him. Nayaz had been hoping that Mehaboob would help him to finance his loans, but now Mehaboob cannot help but feel that Nayaz is being artificial and performative to him. They become even more distanced from one another.
Arifa’s anxiety is magnified by her pregnancy, now in the middle of her second trimester. Nayaz and Mehaboob both observe how exhausted Arifa is, but they are too preoccupied with their brewing conflict to prioritize her well-being. One afternoon during a nap, Mehaboob dreams of the mango tree reaching out to him and cooling the rage in his heart. When he wakes from his dream, he calls for his brother. Arifa, whose appearance in that moment reminds him of the mango tree, serves him a cup of tea. No longer driven by his temper, Mehaboob asks after Arifa’s health and takes her to the gynecologist. He offers to take her out to dinner afterwards.
Nayaz is excited to talk to Mehaboob again, now that his mood has improved. He is ready to admit that he was wrong to do the renovations without consulting Mehaboob first. He sees Naseema again in the high-heeled shoes and finds that they have a negative effect on his common sense. He becomes obsessed with possessing them for Arifa once more. Meanwhile, Naseema becomes irritated that Mehaboob is starting to take care of Arifa’s medical expenses.
The two couples go shopping in Mughal Darbar. Nayaz sees a pair of high-heeled shoes on display and becomes enchanted once again. Under their influence, Nayaz asks the shopkeeper for the shoes and makes Arifa try them on. An anxious Arifa finds that the shoes are too narrow for her, highlighting the flaws of her overworked feet. Although it is difficult to walk in the shoes, Arifa knows she cannot refuse her husband’s gesture. Throughout the rest of the shopping day, Arifa stumbles around. Out of pity, Naseema assists Arifa. Arifa eventually falls behind the rest of the group. Her worry is exacerbated by the onset of nausea and a cough.
Arifa tries forcing her weight on the heels to make them easier to walk in. As the heels do not bend, this gives Arifa the confidence to walk onward. Eventually, she stumbles again and grabs onto a man, who suggests that she should remove them. Arifa is embarrassed, though she admits that even if she removes them, she will be expected to wear them again. She feels darkness surrounding her and creeping into her body, stopping short of her pregnant belly. She hears her unborn child, who complains that they are experiencing the pressure of Arifa’s full body weight.
Arifa tries to remove the shoes but finds that they have clung too tightly to her feet. Fearing that her child will die, Arifa focuses her strength into the heels, shattering them. She stands easily on firm ground.
Stories 5-7 Analysis
Mushtaq continues to drive sharp social commentary in these stories, focusing not only on the exploitative power structures created by the patriarchy, but also the entrenchment of these structures in a capitalist economy. Mushtaq’s critique relies on the idea that a person’s status derives from the value of their possessions. This extends to women, who are often treated as part of a man’s possessions in traditional family structures.
“Red Lungi” portrays the stark differences between the working class and the upper class, speaking to The Inextricable Link Between Patriarchy and Capitalism. The mass khatna is motivated by Razia’s inconvenience. She would rather take on the financial burden of organizing a khatna than engage with her children. Mushtaq frequently deploys contrast to underscore the excess of Razia and Latif Ahmad’s lifestyle. The opulence of their children’s lungis clash against the simplicity of the red lungis used for the mass khatna. The clinical violence of the mass khatna, which is conducted by a working-class professional, stands in contrast to the ceremonial reverence of the private circumcision for Razia’s children, which is conducted by a local surgeon.
The story indicts, however, the way Razia and Latif Ahmad are treated as community benefactors while those availing themselves of the free service their excess wealth creates are seen as leeches trying to exploit the rich. Latif Ahmad is conscience-stricken when he sees how the men at the khatna treat the mother who wants her son to undergo circumcision just so she can get the goods and money being distributed after the procedure. He laments the “inhumane” treatment the men show toward this woman without realizing how their economic circumstances are what give rise to such cruelty. In a more just, equitable society, the woman wouldn’t have to resort to desperate methods to register her son for the khatna, let alone use the service to avail of free goods. Instead, the men side with Latif Ahmad as their benefactor, antagonizing the woman in need. Razia has a similar revelation when she sees the contrast between Samad and Arif’s recovery. While Razia extends generosity to Arif, it is really out of concern for Samad, who continues to suffer despite his access to the medical services that their wealth can afford him.
“High-Heeled Shoe” reaffirms Mushtaq’s critique of social class by exposing the performative nature of luxury. Nayaz Khan is obsessed with getting high-heeled shoes for Arifa because he wants to prove that he can provide for her as well as Mehaboob can for Naseema. Nayaz is driven by the insecurity of his status, which is why he plunges himself into debt for the renovation of his house. Rather than impress him, the renovations leave Mehaboob crestfallen since Nayaz has effectively obliterated their shared childhood memories. Rather than come back to the home he grew up in, Mehaboob feels as though he has arrived at the house of a stranger, deepening his despair that he can never truly return home as a migrant.
The irony of Nayaz’s obsession is that it fails to consider Arifa’s needs. She never expresses a desire for the shoes because she never covets them, nor envies Naseema for her luxury. When Nayaz makes Arifa put the shoes on, Arifa immediately registers her discomfort, underscoring how unfit Nayaz’s aspirations are for the kind of life Arifa leads. Mushtaq draws a comparison between Mehrun of “Heart Lamp” and Arifa by making Arifa act against Nayaz’s aspirations for the sake of her child. Arifa’s heroic act revolves around the destruction of her new shoes, which symbolize the rejection of his performative aspiration. Arifa refuses to live as proof of her husband’s hollow wealth.
The title story of the collection “Heart Lamp” transposes the metaphor of property onto Mehrun, who grieves over the lack of agency she has in her abusive marriage with Inayat, reflecting The Problem of Gendered Violence in the Family. The story frames Mehrun as someone who belongs to Inayat. The tension that marks the beginning of the story underscores the family’s acknowledgment that Mehrun is Inayat’s property. Rather than listen to Mehrun, they prioritize returning her to Inayat as soon as possible, fearing that holding on to her would bring dishonor to their family. Mehrun’s disappointment comes from the fact that Inayat’s abuse is plain for anyone to see, yet her family continues to argue that Inayat’s behavior is her responsibility. The contradiction between her lack of agency and her supposed responsibility for Inayat’s actions merely emphasizes the gendered double standard: Because of the patriarchy, Inayat is guilty of nothing while Mehrun is guilty of all of Inayat’s faults.
The title of the story and the collection harken to the purpose Mehrun has for living. When Mushtaq deploys the title, Mehrun is taking stock of her home, looking for something to reignite the light in her heart: “Who should she live for? What was the point? The walls, the roof, the plates, bowls, stove, bed, vessels, the rose plant in the front yard—none of these were able to answer her questions” (105-106). Mehrun cannot find her purpose in the belongings of her house because she sees herself as one of their number.
Salma convinces Mehrun not to die by urging her to live for her children, rather than for Inayat. In Salma’s touch, Mehrun finds the comfort of a friend who sees her suffering and consoles her; it corrects the notion that Mehrun had a few pages earlier: “There was no one to ask after her. There was no one to tease her, hug, kiss her. The person [Inayat] who had done those things belonged to someone else now” (107). Salma teaches Mehrun to disentangle herself from the idea of property by showing Mehrun that she recognizes her personhood and values her.
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