An American Brat by Bapsi Sidhwa Read Free Book Online Page A

either to prepare them for or divert them from marriage.

Chapter 4

    They had phoned Manek with the flight details two weeks before Feroza was due to leave. Manek assured them he would be at Kennedy Airport when she arrived and would take good care of her. He instructed Feroza to do her duty-free shopping at Dubai Airport, since it was the cheapest. He did not require much persuasion to disclose what he would like, namely a cassette player and a camera. He gave her the brand names and particulars of each.
    Like most Parsees, who know very little about their religion, Feroza had a comfortable relationship with the faith she was born into; she accepted it as she did the color of her eyes or the length of her limbs. The day before her departure, Feroza drove their blue Volkswagen to the trendy new agyari in the Parsee colony. She visited the fire temple about four or five times a year: on the three New Years the Parsees celebrate according to different calendars; on Pateti, which is the last day of the year; and on special occasions, like her impending voyage.
    Zareen could not accompany her because she was having her period; her presence would pollute the temple.

    The atash — the consecrated fire in the agyari that is never permitted to go out — had been lovingly tended for eighty years by mobed Antia and his son, who was also a mobed. The holy fire had been moved about two years ago, with due reverence and ceremony, to be housed in the new agyari near the fashionable Liberty Market in Gulberg. The old location behind the Small-Causes Court had become congested, and the traffic of tongas, bullock carts, and lorries that jammed the narrow lanes made the approach difficult.
    Feroza honked to alert the priest of her presence. He lived in special quarters built right next to the temple. As she walked past,Feroza noticed the large padlock on his door and was disappointed.
    Feroza liked to hear the priest chant her family’s names during the Tandarosti prayer for good health. He recited the prayer slowly and with a solemn majesty that caused each word to resonate with sacred significance beneath the dome of the inner sanctum and the soaring vault of the hall.
    Feroza also liked to watch the priest, luminous in a froth of starched white robes, decorously feed the fire with offerings of sandalwood from a long-handled silver ladle.
    The narrow side door of the agyari was open. Feroza covered her head with a scarf, daubed her eyes with water from a silver jar, and performed her kusti in the lobby. As she unwound the sacred thread girdling her waist and retied the knots in the front and the back, she asked Ahura Mazda’s forgiveness for every ignoble thought, word, and deed she was guilty of and prayed that she might have the good thoughts, the eloquent tongue, and the strength to perform the deeds that would advance His Divine Plan. Having thus girded her loins in the service of the Lord, she entered the circular hall fragrant with sandalwood smoke and frankincense.
    Feroza lit an oil lamp and saluted the enormous framed portraits of departed Lahori Parsees and, removing her shoes, knelt before the marble threshold of the inner sanctum. The walls and dome of the small, round room imbued the space with a mystic aura and provided an appropriate foil for the atash as the manifestation of God’s energy.
    Feroza lay her forehead on the cool marble and requested the Almighty to protect her during her long journey overseas and to make her visit to America happy and successful. Then she solicited His blessings for herself and for all members of her family. Taking a pinch of ash from a ladle placed on the marble step, Feroza daubed her forehead with it; she already felt as if she had shed all impure thoughts.
    Feroza took a few steps backwards and, holding her palms together, raised her eyes to the atash. The holy fire glowedserenely on its bed of pale ashes in a round tray on top of the fire altar. The altar was like a