Sultana Nahar

'In Extreme Need of Guidance', the book being serialised here, captures the first 16 years of writer Sultana Nahar's life. This is the Afterword by the author.

'In Extreme Need of Guidance', the book being serialised here, captures the first 16 years of writer Sultana Nahar's life. "A Bomb Falls" is the 10th chapter in the book.

On summer days when the sunlight falls through the trees it scatters into a play of light and shadows on the ground. My memories of Fareed are like that.

For iftar during that month we were served milk with rosewater which I found quite delicious, and gulab jamun served as dessert. When some girls didn’t want or didn’t finish their portions they would give it to me and I would accept happily.

Once on the road I could see that Lahore was bigger than I had imagined. The trees were large and red dust, like that from the desert, billowed in wide avenues.

'In Extreme Need of Guidance', the book being serialised here, captures the first 16 years of Sultana Nahar's life. "The Engineer" is the sixth chapter in the book.

I was an otter. I was an amphibian. Even at night I would be in the pond or the river.

On moonlit nights when the perfume of the roses thickened the air, I was in a trance, an ecstasy of body and mind. The beauty of the night has held an allure for me my whole life.

I hurt my left knee quite seriously but was too afraid of my father to tell anyone about it. I thought the fault was mine, as though my injury was some kind of crime. So for several days I wore long dresses and kept my knee hidden from everyone even as the wound became infected and the bone began to show.

'In Extreme Need of Guidance', the book being serialised here, captures the first sixteen years of Sultana Nahar's life. "Mercolized Wax" is the second chapter in the book.

When I think of the thick limestone walls of the house now I think of the essence of the generations of our family that it has absorbed.