78 pages • 2 hours read
Veera HiranandaniThe Night Diary
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 1-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “July 14, 1947”
Nisha and her twin brother, Amil, awaken to celebrate their 12th birthday. The day is bittersweet for the family because it also marks the anniversary of their mother’s death. Each year, Papa gives Nisha a piece of her mother’s jewelry in a blue velvet box, and this year, Papa gives Amil a book.
Kazi, the family’s cook, gives Nisha a diary and tells her “it [is] time to start writing things down […] someone needs to make a record of the things that will happen because the grown-ups will be too busy” (3). Nisha is unsure what Kazi means, but she writes daily, addressing her entries to Mama. Kazi gives Amil charcoal pencils and makes a special dinner for the twins’ birthday. The twins skip school and spend the day in the sugarcane field where Amil draws.
Papa is harder on Amil than he is on Nisha. Nisha recalls how Amil used to be Papa’s favorite, but at seven or eight, Papa told Amil to “stop smiling so much, that it made him look ridiculous” (5). Amil tells Nisha their Papa would always be mad at him, “[he’s] just not what [Papa] wanted” (7).
Chapter 2 Summary: “July 15, 1947”
Papa learns the twins skipped school and punishes Amil. Nisha knows she has escaped punishment because she excels in school, and Amil does not. Nisha compares Papa to Kazi and thinks Kazi likes them best: “Papa is too busy to do a lot of liking and Dadi is too old” (9). Papa works hard every day, and many people bring him gifts of gratitude, but Nisha rarely sees him.
Chapter 3 Summary: “July 16, 1947”
Nisha wants to grow up to be like Kazi. He is the one who has always played with Nisha and Amil, and she loves helping Kazi in the kitchen. Dadi discourages her ambition, telling Nisha that she’ll marry, and someone will cook for her. Nisha thinks that does not sound like any fun and can’t wait to cook like Kazi. Nisha often sneaks into the kitchen while Dadi thinks she is studying to help Kazi prepare dinner. She likes to cook and marvels at the way Kazi takes plain ingredients and makes them into something delicious.
Chapter 4 Summary: “July 17, 1947”
Nisha speaks very little—only to Amil and Kazi. She is scared to talk “because once the words are out, you can’t put them back” (12). She prefers writing because she can compose her words carefully. Nisha contrasts herself to Amil, describing him as someone who loves to talk and hates to write. His teachers question his intelligence because of his poor schoolwork. They have not seen his drawings, which Nisha admires.
Chapter 5 Summary: “July 18, 1947”
Men come to the house. Dadi sends the children and Kazi away so they cannot hear the conversation. Nisha only hears some of the words: “Pakistan, Jinnah, independence, Nehru, India, British, Lord Mountbatten, Gandhi, partition” (15). The men finally leave, and Dadi and Kazi exchange knowing glances. Neither will disclose anything to Nisha or Amil. Amil tells Nisha he heard one of the men ask when they’d be leaving and tells her it has something to do with India becoming independent of Britain.
Chapter 6 Summary: “July 19, 1947”
On the walk home from school, boys throw rocks at Nisha and Amil, and one hits Nisha. She thinks Amil has provoked the boys, but he hasn’t. Amil says it is because they are Hindu. Amil describes the fighting that has broken out all over India between Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs. He tells Nisha it was Muslim men who’d come to their home to notify Papa that all Hindus must leave, and Kazi can’t stay with the family anymore. Everyone in the town of Mirpur Khas knows who is what religion, but they have all lived together for so long, Nisha has never thought about it. She reflects on how “all the kids play together at [her] school no matter what religion [they] are” (20). No one discusses the fact Mama was Muslim and married to a Hindu.
Chapter 7 Summary: “July 20, 1947”
Nisha wonders if Amil’s breach birth is what killed Mama and hopes Amil does not think about it too much. Amil looks like their mother “with his long nose and wide eyes. [Nisha] looks more like Papa […] [with] his round face and small mouth” (23). Nisha looks at the one picture of Mama that Papa keeps in the home and thinks Mama looks like a movie star. She notes seeing her friend Sabine walking hand-in-hand with her own mother, and Nisha longs for Mama and wonders how it would feel to hold Mama’s hand. Dadi never kisses Nisha; “[she] only pats her hand […] braids her hair and gives her cardamom milk when she is sick. But it’s not the same” (22). Nisha talks to Mama’s picture and writes to her in her diary in order to maintain connection.
Chapter 8 Summary: “July 21, 1947”
Nisha learns her mother had not liked cooking, as she’d imagined. Mama had often been so consumed with her painting that she would forget to eat. Nisha is surprised when Kazi says, “It is your papa who likes to cook. That’s where you get it from” (24). Before the family had hired Kazi, Papa would cook for Mama, and Mama would dip her fingers in the curry so her guests would believe she was the one cooking. Nisha wonders why Papa keeps Mama’s paintings hidden in his study, and Kazi says they make him sad.
In telling Nisha the story of how he came to be her family’s cook, Kazi describes Nisha’s parents as very brave. Everyone had been against Papa and Mama’s marriage, and when they’d first arrived in Mirpur Khas, they were “ostracized from the community, even though all kinds of people get along [there]. But marriage has always been different” (25). Kazi, desperate for a job, “decided to knock on the door nobody wanted to knock on” (25). Papa requested Kazi cook aloo tikki, Mama’s favorite dish; it was so good they hired Kazi immediately. Kazi tells Nisha her papa is such a good doctor that he quickly earned respect in the community, but just three years after their arrival, Nisha’s mother died.
Chapter 9 Summary: “July 22, 1947”
Dr. Ahmed, Papa’s Muslim friend and colleague, comes to see Papa, and their conversation is uncharacteristically solemn. Afterward, Papa, and Dadi speak in hushed tones about the conditions in Mirpur Khas. Nisha is jealous of Papa because he has his mother, Dadi, and Nisha does not have hers. Amil tells Nisha that Britain is going to free India, but that India will be divided into two countries: one for Hindus and one for Muslims. Nisha feels certain Kazi will never leave them because they are a family, and also because their mother had been Muslim. Amil tells Nisha they’re not supposed to talk about that.
Chapter 10 Summary: “July 23, 1947”
Chapters 1-10 Analysis
The opening chapter introduces Nisha, her twin brother Amil, and the small circle of characters who comprise her immediate family: Papa, Mama, Dadi, the twins’ paternal grandmother, and Kazi, the family’s Muslim cook. The Night Diary is a compilation of diary entries spanning just over four months. They are Nisha’s entries, in her voice, and thus carry the inherent bias of a first-person narrator. All of her entries, with the exception of one, are written to Mama in an attempt to connect with the mother she never knew. Through a one-sided dialogue, Nisha constructs Mama as she believes she would be. Nisha knows little of her mother, only the stories others have shared. She observes other children and their mothers and understands the motherly love for which she longs, the love Mama would give her if she were alive. By writing to Mama, and telling Mama about herself and her life, Nisha constructs and comes to know Mama, and in so doing, fills some part of that gap.
Nisha makes several references to Amil’s inability to read, pointing to the words “jump[ing] around and chang[ing] on him” (8), perhaps characterizing Amil as dyslexic. Amil is drawn as an intelligent character with a strong memory, an artistic ability, and a sharp wit. Papa is unable to appreciate Amil’s gifts, however, this will change as the characters develop in the face of hardships. Papa does not believe Amil when he says the words move about when he reads, and Papa dismisses Amil as lazy and defiant. When seen through the eyes of a child, which the diary enables, Papa’s unwillingness to accept Amil as he is seems particularly cruel. Nisha notes how when they were younger, Amil had been Papa’s favorite, but at the age of seven or eight, Papa became intolerant of Amil. The tension remains and even escalate. Papa chides Amil for smiling “too much,” for not being able to read or write, and he says Amil’s too playful. Despite these criticisms, Amil is happy being who he is. He tells Nisha that his father’s feelings won’t alter, and he is defiant, smiling more when his father tells him it makes him look ridiculous. Amil’s reaction to his father are telling of his character. Amil’s awareness of his father’s feelings toward him and then his dismissal of them are telling of Amil’s character. Even at 12, Amil is confident and self-aware when receiving poor treatment from his only living parent.
Kazi is the family’s Muslim cook who, in Nisha’s mind, loves them most. He is drawn as an opposite—but not in opposition to—Papa. He is playful, accepting of both children’s gifts and foibles, and is emblematic of the traits Nisha believes her mother would have exhibited. Kazi encourages their unique talents, as evidenced by his well-suited gifts: Nisha doesn’t speak, so he gives her a way to communicate, and Amil is an artist, so Kazi gives him drawing implements. Kazi gives the children what they need and want, and Papa cannot. In contrast to Kazi’s gift of charcoal and paper, Papa gives Amil “a thick collection of tales from the Mahabharata” (7), one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India. The gold lettering and colorful pictures are beautiful, but Amil can’t read, and “the gift” serves to highlight his shortcomings.
The early chapters also introduce Nisha’s anxiety around speaking, something she struggles with throughout the novel. She will speak to Dadi and Papa rarely, and only if she must. Nisha speaks more freely to Amil and Kazi but is still scared to make her voice heard, an extreme contrast to Amil, who is gregarious and will engage in conversation with anyone.
Lastly, there is an important element of foreshadowing in the forceful but hushed conversation that occurs when the men pay an unexpected visit. Amil hears them ask when the family will be leaving, tipping off the reader to a likely future journey.
The rumors and subsequent consequences of partition are fast becoming a reality. Nisha and her family can be seen as representative of both the Hindu and Muslim experience in part because, while Nisha’s father is Hindu, Nisha’s mother had been Muslim. Kazi, who is like family, is also Muslim, and the separation Nisha experiences from Kazi parallels that which could have occurred with Mama if she were alive. Nisha’s family is Hindu, but they live on land that has just become Pakistan, necessitating their long, difficult journey east to new India. The displacement and subsequent migration of Nisha’s family is analogous to that of approximately seven million Hindus and an equal number of Muslims. The Indian Partition, the literal splitting of India, was responsible for the largest mass migration in history.
As a result of World War II, Britain had incurred extensive damage and significant war debt, and the country needed to focus its resources on rebuilding. In order to lessen its obligations, on July 15, 1947, the British government decided to relinquish control of India. One month later, on August 15, 1947, India achieved independence. It should have been cause for celebration, but at the very moment India gained independence, it was partitioned into two states: a new India for Hindus and Sikhs, and Pakistan for Muslims. Prior to independence, two centuries of colonial rule had kept India’s diverse population unified and living in relative peace, but upon the partition, extreme violence broke out between the groups.
Several theories seek to explain why groups of people who had been living peacefully suddenly became violent against one another. One theory is that the British government had been so rushed to relinquish control, it was hasty in determining new borders and drew them in places that intensified anger between groups. Others blame the “increasingly hostile rhetoric that accompanied the rise of Hindu and Muslim nationalism” as well as “the divide and rule policies of the British” (Perkins, C. Ryan. 1947 Partition of India & Pakistan. Stanford Libraries. https://exhibits.stanford.edu/1947-partition/about/1947-partition-of-india-pakistan)
