Sophia’s Reviews > Heart Lamp: Selected Stories > Status Update

How nice to see someone give to someone not well off. That circumcision story was a lot though. Horrifying. One part made me gasp out loud. So this is where I learn more about it.

Man, that story was rough. Yusuf definitely needed to show proper love and affection. His mother could have tried to guide him to it. Her remaining silent made Yusuf feel like she’s the victim when Akhila’s upset. Akhila would have softened. Akhila’s crying feeling she’s the instigator but it was Yusuf. It might not have been enough but marriage shouldn’t be an arrangement alone, it requires love.

Mehaboob Bi, his mother, being married off without her consent, unable to carry her grandsons pain while he’s crying, lamenting, “that day her heart was hard as stone, filling with bitterness in a damned world where no one else was there for anyone else”. She’s just tired and lonely and exhausted. She isn’t being cared for, she can’t even care for others as a result. There’s just something so haunting.