Eleven-year-old Maryam (Mimi) Scotts has just arrived in Karachi, Pakistan for her summer holidays. (Her mother had lost her teaching job at the Houston Art Institute last year.) Mimi's father left them when she was five-years-old. Mim's dad is a journalist who travels internationally working on stories. She has followed him online and knows that recently he was working in China. On the flight to Karachi, Mimi decided she was going to "write" to her father about her trip by addressing entries in her journal to her father whom she misses terribly.
Sakina Ejaz lives with her amma, abba and younger brother Jamshed in a poor neighbourhood in Karachi. She rides every morning with her abba on the back of his motorbike to work at Begum Sahiba's house where she helps her father with his cooking duties. This day the house is expecting guests who happen to be Begum Sahiba's daughter and granddaughter - Mimi and her mother.
After greeting her Nana (grandfather) and Nani (grandmother) Mimi and her mother are taken upstairs by Sakina who is shocked when Mimi talks to her. People don't usually talk to her in Begum Sahiba's home and Sakina doesn't speak English very well. Her poor English is the reason she failed the admissions test to New Haven School. Fortunately, because of her high science and mathematics marks, she has been given another chance at the exam on July 27th. Sakina loves to read and has a small secret reading space in a half room behind their toilet in her family's small house. She's serious about going to school even though she has never attended and she knows her parents need the extra income she earns for their family to survive. But while she practices her other subjects, Sakina struggles to master English. She needs a teacher and Mimi might just be the person to help her.
The next day when Mimi complains about Pakistani fruit being boring, Sakina has her try mango and offers her a deal. Mimi agrees that mango is the most delicious fruit ever. She questions Sakina as to why she has never been to school. Sakina tells Mimi that she learned math, science and some English along with the children who were tutored in the home her abba previously worked at. Sakina makes a deal with Mimi to have her teach her English.
Gradually the two girls begin to trust one another and become friends. Mimi helps Sakina improve her English while Sakina helps Mimi learn more about Karachi and Pakistani culture. Then Mimi overhears her mother and grandparents talking and learns her father may be working in Karachi. Deeply hurt at her mother's secrecy, Mimi's determination and desire to meet her father only intensify. Meanwhile Sakina's family faces a crisis when her father's diabetes becomes unmanageable and they are unable to afford his medication. This means even if Sakina passes the exam, their poverty may mean she will never attend. Can the two girls help each other achieve their most heartfelt desires?
Discussion
Set in the bustling city of Karachi, Pakistan, the hometown of author Saadia Faruqi, A Thousand Questions is a story about two girls whose misconceptions about each other's lives and cultures are challenged. Through friendship they learn about each other's culture, find what binds them together and work to help one another.
Mimi Scotts, a young American girl visiting her grandparents' home in Karachi appears to have a charmed life with her interesting American clothing and the opportunity to attend school. But Mimi is a girl who has been mourning the loss of her father ever since
he abruptly left when she was five years old. We learn later in the
novel that he left after being offered "...this really exciting
assignment in Iraq, right in the middle of an insurgency. It would have
killed my career not to go." What followed was one assignment after another that Mimi's father felt he couldn't refuse. He abandoned Mimi and
her mother. This absence becomes a huge hole in Mimi's life and is deepened when Mimi discovers that her mother has been keeping a secret from her while in Pakistan: that her father is
living in Karachi. It's hard to accept Mimi's mother's excuse as to why
she kept this secret from Mimi. While it's understandable that
she would be angry with his abandonment, nevertheless Mimi has the right
and the need to have a relationship with her father, no matter what she
may think of her ex-husband. It's this lack of empathy and understanding that makes her the least likeable character in the novel.
Eventually Mimi confronts her mother about what she has done over the
last few years. Mimi challenges her mother."You're just....hiding.
That's it. You're hiding from everything painful in your life, not even
caring that you don't have the right to keep information from other
people." She tells her mother to stop pretending and to acknowledge her
pain, that she has "...a hole in my heart where he used to be, and I
can't just forget that."
In contrast to Mimi is Sakina Ejaz who is a servant in Mimi's grandparents' home. Sakina has a mother and a father but her life is hard. Her family has no money for school and she works alongside her father who is cook for Mimi's grandparents. She wants to become a teacher and help others but struggles with deep internal conflict: her desire for an education and her responsibility to earn money for her family. This conflict is especially heartbreaking as it is a very real one for many girls in the developing world, who are either married off young to pay off debt or who must work to support their families.
At first Mimi sees Sakina as the servant girl in her grandparents' home. But her view of Sakina changes as she gets to know her better. She admires Sakina's maturity and responsibility. "Her life is so different from mine, I suddenly think. She actually works for a living, contributes to her family, has an opinion about grown-up things." This is in contrast to Mimi's life where everything is provided for her. Mimi's view of Sakina's life changes again when she goes to visit her. She
tells Sakina, "I used to think I was better off than you because I had
more stuff, but it's not really true." While Sakina has less "stuff" she has an intact family, including a father who is involved in her life. Sakina too has her own misconceptions about Americans. She tells Mimi she's lucky to be rich and living in America but Mimi tells her "Rich? We have no money in Houston. It's only here that we seem rich."
Despite their differences in culture and opportunities, the two girls form a friendship and begin to work together to help each other: Mimi helps Sakina improve her English so she can pass an entrance exam into school and Sakina takes Mimi's journal to her father's office which leads to him reconnecting with Mimi. The story weaves itself between these two narratives, Mimi's desire to find her father once she learns he might actually be in Karachi and Sakina's desire to attend school despite her father's illness and their poverty. Both girls' situations evoke sympathy and this story serves to demonstrate that people everywhere, no matter culture or race experience troubles in life. The message is that we all need to work together to help one another. Faruqi offers a balanced story, having her characters point out that both America or Pakistan are countries with similar problems such as poverty and government corruption, although both are likely worse in Pakistan.
A Thousand Questions offers young readers a contrast in cultures and shows that with empathy we can bridge the differences that exist. The novel ends on a hopeful note, with Mimi and Sakina both experiencing positive changes in their lives and looking forward to continuing their friendship. This heartfelt novel will be enjoyed by middle-grade readers. The author provides a glossary of Pakistani words as well as some information about the city of Karachi in her Author's Note at the back.
Book Details:
A Thousand Questions by Saadia Faruqi
New York: Quill Tree Books 2020
310 pp.
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