“
Her breathing, her cries for her son who died, her sleeplessness, her prayer, and, of course, her will that we should practice Islam, were as familiar to me as the scent of her body, one of the first sensuous cartographies in my memory—jasmine attar, violet talcum, paan juice, crushed rose powder, coconut oil, Pond’s cream, Tabasco sauce, canola oil.
”
”