”Before it starts,
you hear a zipper baring its teeth,
perhaps the sound of a shoe being kicked aside in haste, the wincing of the mattress”(135).
This quote is about what happens before Lakshmi is raped. She is describing what one would hear and not hear. It just shows how serious and frightening what she's going through.
This is also the season when the women drink the blue-black juice of the marking nut tree to do away with the babies in their wombs – the ones who would be born only to be buried next season.
All over the city, the cooking hour has begun. This is the saddest smell in the world because it means that here at Mumtaz’s house the men will start to arrive.
A son will always be a son, they say. But a girl is like a goat.
Good as long as she gives you milk and butter. But not worth crying over when it’s time to make a stew.