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 11-20Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 11 Summary: “July 24, 1947”
Chapter 12 Summary: “July 25, 1947”
Papa is not at breakfast, and Amil tells Nisha how the boys at his school are dividing into groups and “a Hindu boy called a Muslim boy a very bad word [..] [and] they got into a big fight” (32). Nisha and Amil take a secret path to school to avoid a group of boys who pick on Amil. Nisha thinks it is because Amil is skinny, bad at sports, and taunts the boys by drawing funny pictures of them.
Chapter 13 Summary: “July 26, 1947”
Nisha suggests telling everyone at school that their father is Hindu and their mother was Muslim, thinking both groups would accept them. Amil, having a better understanding of the growing division between Hindus and Muslims, tells Nisha it’s a stupid idea and that she should go back to not talking. Nisha spits on Amil’s toes and walks home, leaving him alone. She passes the boys who typically chase them and realizes it is “Amil and his ridiculous drawings and his big mouth” (35) that they do not like. She is safer alone.
Chapter 14 Summary: “July 28, 1947”
Amil does not return home, and Nisha thinks the boys might have attacked him. Nisha’s fear forces her to tell Kazi about their secret path and about the boys who want to hurt Amil. She takes Kazi on the path, but they do not find Amil. Nisha and Kazi go to the hospital to tell Papa Amil is missing. Papa is not happy to see her, and when she tells Papa that Amil is lost, Papa calls for Amil. Amil comes out of a room, bandaged. Nisha asks him if the boys beat him. Papa is surprised; Amil had not mentioned them. Amil says he ran away from the boys, and Papa asks Amil what he did to provoke them.
Chapter 15 Summary: “July 29, 1947”
Chapter 16 Summary: “July 30, 1947”
Papa tells Nisha and Amil they will not go to school; Dadi will give them their lessons. Amil is thrilled. Papa tells the children that India will soon be independent from British rule, that it will become two countries. The Mirpur Khas won’t be in India anymore. Nisha misses school and finds it inconceivable how people who had been fond of each other one day could be violent toward each other the next.
Chapter 17 Summary: “July 31, 1947”
Kazi allows Nisha to help in the kitchen but urges her to spend more time studying. Dadi makes Nisha and Amil write the alphabet, a task well below Nisha’s ability but difficult for Amil. Nisha describes how beautifully Amil decorates his letters and attributes his artistic tendencies to their mother.
Chapter 18 Summary: “August 1, 1947”
Dadi asks Nisha and Amil to sweep. Amil refuses and runs off to the garden shed where he etches images of their family into the soft wood walls. He says he is “leaving [their] story on the walls” (49). Kazi is still distant, and Nisha asks if he is angry with her. He says he’s mad at the world. Nisha recalls times when her family used to throw parties and asks Papa when they can return to school; Papa does not respond.
Chapter 19 Summary: “August 2, 1947”
Dadi, Nisha, and Amil hear a disturbance and hide in the pantry. Dadi prays. They hear people entering their home and the toppling of furniture. The intruders leave and Dadi, Nisha, and Amil come out of hiding to find Kazi badly beaten. Dadi cleans and dresses Kazi’s wounds while Nisha and Amil right the upturned furniture and sweep up the shards of glass and pottery. Nisha puts a piece of Kazi’s bowl in her pocket. Papa comes home and stitches Kazi’s headwound, instructing Amil, step-by-step in the procedure; Amil observes Papa closely. Amil wants to know who hurt Kazi and if they’ll return to hurt the rest of the family.
Papa tells Amil independence should have been “a beautiful moment in history” but how “sometimes the world as you know it just decides to become something else” (57). Dadi assures the children they are safe, but they cannot sleep. Amil wonders if the intruders had been Muslim or Hindu, and if Muslim, why they would hurt Kazi. Nisha says that she doesn’t even know what side she is on and if she needs to be on a side. Amil says, “I think it’s safer. That way you know who your enemy is” (59).
Chapter 20 Summary: “August 3, 1947”
Chapters 11-20 Analysis
The increasing frequency with which Nisha speaks follows the rising action of the plot. As it becomes clear there will be a partition and because she is Hindu and must leave her home, Nisha develops a heightened awareness of her half-Muslim heritage. She dreads leaving Kazi and wonders if she would have been separated from her mother if she were alive. The overall uncertainty of her family’s future drives her to seek answers, and she forces herself to speak.
The other characters also respond to the unpredictability of their circumstances. Anticipating his separation from the family, Kazi, who has always been loving, becomes aloof. His distance confuses Nisha, and she believes, as a child might, that he is mad at her. When she musters the courage to ask him, Kazi says, “No, no. I could never be mad at someone as sweet as you. I’m just mad at the world” (51). The fighting between Muslims and Hindus, and the knowledge that he’ll soon say goodbye, troubles him. Kazi is, perhaps subconsciously, separating from the children to make their goodbye easier.
Amil has always been kind to Nisha, but in these chapters, he becomes impatient and says mean things. His fear and an inability to control his circumstances cause Amil lash out at the one closest to him. When Nisha suggests telling people they are both Muslim and Hindu, Amil is uncharacteristically harsh, telling Nisha “that’s the stupidest thing [she’s] ever said” and that maybe she “should always keep [her] mouth shut” (35). He knows she fears speaking and thoughtlessly squashes her, not unlike the way Papa treats him for being unable to read. Amil uses defiance to feel he is in control of his life. He continues taunting the boys at school who wish to hurt him, reckless in his lack of concern for the consequences. Amil refuses to do school work and ignores Dadi when she wants his help. Instead of doing as Dadi asks, Amil disregards her, opting instead to spend time pressing pictures into the walls of their garden shed. His art is his way of leaving something behind that is permanent.
Papa, too, has changed. Nisha reflects on how often he used to throw parties and that “Papa used to be happier” (52). Papa is worried and it shows. He carries the weight of getting his family to safety. A secular man and a doctor, Papa knows people are all the same on the inside, which makes accepting the breakup of India over religious and political differences all the more senseless and depressing.
This section also contains details of the partition. Papa teaches the children about the leaders involved and gives an overview of their perspectives: “Jinnah, the leader of the Muslim League, wants a place for Muslims to be fairly represented. Nehru, the leader of the Indian National Congress wants to be the first Prime Minister of India. Gandhi wants everyone to stay together, which is what [he] want[s], but most people aren’t like Gandhiji” (45). Papa is aligned with Gandhi, whose name is synonymous with peace.
