Sometimes, it is easier to leave things as they are, rather than to fight, go against the flow.

What am I doing here, Reena? Why am I dancing to the tunes of that old hag?’‘You are saving your family.

You are a girl, Shirin. Girls don’t run around naked.’‘Why?’‘They just don’t.

Have you been reading those books that clueless illiterate Duja in charge of the lending library lets you borrow?’ ‘No, Ma.’ ‘Then what put you in mind of devils possessing nuns to take over the church?

She was a sleuth and sleuths had to follow rules. ‘Get to the point; don’t allow the subject to digress’ was one of them

You don’t live in luxury! You are relegated to sleep in the little store room behind the kitchen with the cockroaches and rats and are at the mercy of Mrs. Gupta,’ Reena was indignant. ‘It’s five-star accommodation compared to a mud hut.

What wouldn’t my people give for a few bites of the biryani she ordered me to throw away yesterday because she said it smelt?