A family of three, one son and two daughters, live in the Middle East. Their house is on a top floor overlooking the sea. The mother goes to Jeddah every week to work as a translator for expat families. The father, who has passed away, used to be an engineer at an oil refinery in Houston, Texas. He had left behind some savings which provided for their day-to-day needs until he died just before they travelled back to Pakistan after living away from home for 16 years because he was working there as a consultant after being seconded from his parent company because it was expanding its operations into that region. Iqra is the eldest child, Naureen is the second daughter, Rashid is the son. They all sleep in one room because they can't afford to rent a bigger house. Iqra narrates how they gradually lost most of their savings when they bought their current apartment because it was old, big and had a sea view. It was built in the fifties when there was no concept of air-conditioning or security systems. A lot of money went into renovating it with an eye on the expected windfall from renting out its multiple rooms to affluent expat families coming in for medical treatment in the nearby hospital. Moreover, the family's finances are in disarray because they no longer have a legal guardian to look after their finical affairs. They have no idea how much the house is worth now, so they cannot decide when to sell it. Iqra is in college at night studying for her BSC in English Literature and she shares a room with her family during the day. They chose their current neighbourhood because it is close to Iqra's college and central enough for them to get around on foot despite the fact that there is no money for transport fares. They are too proud to ask for donations from Iqra's friends or accept charity. Rashid has stopped living at home since he was thrown out of his college for failing two semesters in a row, becoming the first person in his family to drop out. He is now working at a large department store in the city. Aurangzeb is Naureen's boyfriend who, unlike Rashid, attended college and did very well there with good prospects of getting a scholarship to study abroad. But against his wishes Naureen married him after she became pregnant because they found it hard to live on just his meagre salary of Rs 90,000 per year. Their child is six months old now. Naureen is not doing well as a wife and she has to share a room with her mother-in-law who does not like her. Aurangzeb's mother gets on very well with Iqra, but she resents Naureen. Iqra gets along well with her mother because they live together and alone in the house except for the other family members who stay only during the weekends. And she doesn't have much contact with Aurangzeb's family because they also have work to do in their offices during weekdays so they sleep at home when they visit. They love her but do not understand why a working woman goes to college at night, so they don't really approve of it. 8eeb4e9f32 14
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