Tanya Tania Read Online Free Page A

gets so excited I just can’t help it. I imagine her oily face with all that curly hair (I mean even her moustache hair is curly) and I actually feel the vomit in my mouth. Sometimes I feel like I should tell her. Neenee, don’t be so easy. Neenee, wait for me to call you back. Neenee, don’t let me make fun of you. But then I hear the happiness in her voice when I call her and I want to slap her.
    Neenee is my best friend. We’ve been friends since we started taking the school bus together when we were in nursery school. She still takes the school bus. I would pick her up in my car on my way to school but her father won’t let her. It’s really selfish. I mean, just because you’re not successful don’t make your daughter suffer, right?
    At first I thought it was easy to talk to Nusrat because she can’t speak. But the thing is when someone doesn’t speak, you also speak less. I think words confuse things. Sometimes at school you look around and all the mouths are opening and closing around you and everyone is just talking to talk and you want to stand up and scream at everyone to shut up. Just shut up.
    With Nusrat you don’t need to say it. You don’t need to say anything. You can just sit and look at the sea. She doesn’t look at me and I don’t look at her. Sometimes we hold hands without looking at each other. With Nusrat, it’s damn peaceful.
    Love,
    Tania

    May 20, 1991
    Karachi
    Dear Tania,
    I’m happy to report that there has been some progress from my side. Not a huge amount but definitely, some progress. Baby steps, I say to myself. Chhoti Bibi got 9 out of 10 on a Mental Math test. Granted, it was from a Class III workbook. Granted there was no long division. Still. Baby steps.
    I went to tell my mother about it but her door was locked. She’s been spending a lot of time in her bedroom except when she is in the garden. She loves plants. Had I told you that? That she loves plants?
    The city shut down twice this week because of strikes. I find that short-sighted of our authorities and let’s face it, quite rude. What if we had school and had to miss it?
    Do you think the passive voice is better for a college essay?
    So, is it that you don’t want to go to Harvard and Wellesley or is it that you don’t want to go to college in America at all? Are you worried that you will miss your family? I can’t wait to go back to America. There will be more people like me at Harvard. Plus, my mother’s parents live there, of course. We call them Grandma and Grandad. I always feel awkward calling them that which I shouldn’t because after all, I am part American. My grandmother wears jeans which is, of course, perfectly normal in America. I suppose I will spend all my college holidays with them. They have a big house. I’ve spent all my previous summers there. Sometimes when I look up at my grandmother, I find her staring at me. Is it because I’m Pakistani?
    I don’t really have much else to report so I’ll end here.
    Best,
    Tanya

    June 1, 1991
    Bombay
    Dear Tanya,
    Did you even read my letter? Here’s your Selfish Letter back.
    Tania

    June 13, 1991
    Karachi
    Dear Tania,
    I was going to pretend that I didn’t know what you’re talking about. But I do. Of course I do.
    Truth: Nusrat made me feel claustrophobic. With her carpenter dad and 4 th standard Urdu mum and her adversity and her drive and listening to you on the rocks of the Arabian Sea. She would get into Harvard without even trying.
    And yet it’s not just that. I imagined you and her sitting on the rocks of the sea and it was a physical pain in my chest. When we had first moved to Pakistan, my father used to take us to the beach. It was the first place I loved in Karachi although I used to be scared of the waves. My father would laugh at me and hold me up high above his head, the sea around his knees, and I loved feeling his hands banded around my