Until she was almost four, Shona was a silent witness to everything, as it took her that long to learn to talk. The ambivalence between what was said and what was meant was too difficult for her to unravel at first, and she knew that there were things that should be said which were not. In addition to learning the language of lying, with its complex grammar and syntax and timing, Shona was spoken to in no less than three languages: her mother’s Bengali, the Urdu of the Karim household and the English that Rashid insisted on using with her, in the hope that she would learn to speak English like a native. When Shona finally did speak, so late that everyone was beginning to despair of her as retarded, she was suddenly acclaimed as a genius, a not quite four-year-old who understood three languages! Rashid had a friend who had been on a business trip to the UK, and for her birthday he requested that he order the largest, fluffiest teddy bear that he could buy from the grandest toy store in London.

‘He was bought in a magical place called Hamley’s, which is in England and very far away, and he flew over the sea and deserts and mountains to reach you,’ Rashid explained solemnly to his daughter.

‘I love him, Papa!’ squealed Shona delightedly, hugging the bear somewhat awkwardly due to its ungainly, disproportionate size. She posed for a touching photo with the bear, Rashid’s wise-eyed little girl soberly holding up her magnificent prize with an appropriate sense of awe, and he congratulated himself on his gift. It was some months later, when he was with Shona in the playroom, that he realized that she had almost never touched the bear again, except to carelessly pull its button eye out. She had probably found the teddy too big and cumbersome to play with, and had dragged it to the corner of the playroom, where it sat disconsolately. He realized that she hadn’t loved the bear at all, and had said she loved it for his sake only. Touched on one hand, Rashid felt deeply sorrowful that Shona, at so young an age, had already been forced to learn the language of diplomacy. His golden one had lost her childhood innocence from almost before she could speak.