The Night Diary

Amil is Nisha’s intelligent, artistic twin brother. He is naturally happy and slow to anger. He possesses a wonder for the world, even the negative, as seen by his desire to engage with the boys who bully him. Amil is different from other boys his age; small, thin, and not athletic. Amil is self-possessed and does not define himself by those who dislike him or even Papa’s opinion of him. Amil struggles with school, exhibiting dyslexic behaviors, which Papa refuses to acknowledge. Nevertheless, Amil’s inborn confidence leads him to behave, in all instances, how he sees fit. Toward Nisha, Amil is a loving and intuitive brother and exhibits traits that compliment his twin’s. Not only is he her voice, but he cares deeply for his sister and shows no jealously or resentment toward her even when warranted.

The difficulties Amil faces on the journey to Jodhpur nearly kill him, but even in life-threatening condition, he keeps his sense of humor. After he recovers, he is unchanged. The limitations of the first-person narration aside, Amil shows no shift in character. It is likely due to the fact he was always insightful and perceptive and has seen and reacted to things as they are all along.

Papa is the sole parent of Nisha and Amil, his wife having died during childbirth. He is serious and takes his responsibility for caring for his children and his elderly mother, Dadi, seriously. Papa is a highly-respected doctor and a secular, or cultural, Hindu. It is his identity, but he is not religious and avoids going to temple. Whether rooted in his secular beliefs, his intelligence, or his innate sense of empathy, Papa does not see or define others in terms of their religious identity. He sees and treats others as people first, as evidenced by his marriage to his children’s Muslim mother and his long-time, close relationship with Kazi. Papa aligns his values with Gandhi’s, and while he wants the country to remain whole, he wishes for peace first.

Papa’s children respect and love him, but they do not perceive him as warm or nurturing. He doesn’t play with them like Kazi does and “is too busy to do a lot of liking” (9). He has a particularly challenging relationship with Amil, his son, because he cannot accept Amil’s disability, thinks he is lazy, and does not appreciate Amil’s artistic talent. Perhaps Papa sees his own flaws in Amil and wishes to correct them. When Papa reads to Amil and Nisha, he too struggles to read: “His voice sounded different, higher, sadder. He read slowly and didn’t stop when he was supposed to at the periods” (64). His poor reading makes the twins laugh and gives Amil some vindication. In addition to revealing his own challenges with reading, Papa is also realizes he is incorrect about Amil’s inferior intelligence when Amil beats Papa in chess. For whatever their differences, Papa loves Amil, and when faced with losing him, he changes the way he treats Amil.

Dadi is Nisha’s paternal grandmother, the mother of Papa. She is Hindu and is more religious and traditional than Papa. She likes to go to temple and is often heard singing and praying. Dadi lives with Nisha and is the matriarch of their family. She is elderly and has quirks such as sucking her teeth that sometimes irritate Nisha. Although Dadi loves Nisha and Amil and is nurturing to them, she is not physically affectionate like Nisha imagines her mother would be. Nisha writes: “Dadi never kisses me. She only pats my hand. She braids my hair and gives me cardamom milk when I am sick” (22). To the reader, Dadi’s love for the children is clear, but to Nisha, anyone other than Mama falls short.

When the family leaves Mirpur Khas and makes their journey across the desert to Rashid Uncle’s house, Dadi becomes weak, and Nisha and Amil worry she may die. It is in contemplating Dadi’s death that Nisha realizes how important Dadi is to her. Nisha takes special care to nurse Dadi back to health, and it works; Dadi recovers. While the family is waiting to leave Rashid Uncle’s, Dadi reads newspapers and writes letters that she will not show anyone. Dadi had been alerting Kazi to their whereabouts and asking Kazi to join them. In the end, Dadi is responsible for restoring the family unit and bringing back the person Nisha once considered her only friend.

Kazi has been the family’s cook since before Nisha and Amil were born. In some respects, Kazi stands in for their deceased mother. Although he is Muslim and the children are (according to Papa) Hindu, Kazi and the children share a strong bond, and he is an integral part of their family. When Amil and Nisha were young children, Kazi would “sit cross-legged on the floor and play with [them] after his work was done […] and he was the first person to teach Amil how to play cricket” (10). Kazi “has so much energy for [them]” (10), and he sees Amil and Nisha for who they are: a boy who loves to draw, and a girl who loves to cook. Kazi has patience for Nisha’s inability to speak and instead communicates with her through the processes of cooking.

Kazi is Muslim, so he can’t accompany the family to Jodhpur. He must stay behind in Pakistan. The partition that has created two new countries has separated Kazi from the family. The separation represents a second significant loss in the lives of Nisha and Amil. In the end, even the threat of violence cannot keep Kazi away. He surprises the children by coming to Jodhpur. While he does not cast off his Muslim identity, he keeps it hidden in public in order to be with the family. He, like Papa’s marriage to Mama, exemplifies the love that is possible between people of different faiths, showing that religion is but one part of a person’s identity.