She was sad. With the passage of time, the framed portrait of the lustful nude woman in Yusuf’s bedroom kept adding to Hina’s sorrows.

Yusuf was in contact with Aymal.

After a few months, Aymal introduced him into that circle of people who followed the same beliefs as her. He became a member of that group.

Yusuf kept visiting his house.

He would exchange greetings with Darakhshan but never stayed over. That rope which tied a marriage was broken in search of new perceptions of desire. He had regular conversations with Hina. Three years later, Hina passed her tenth standard examinations. Yusuf gave her a diamond ring as a present. Hina, considering her mother’s happiness, asked him to stay over for lunch. He agreed. It was a pleasant afternoon. He kept talking to Darakhshan as and when required. She had still not understood how Yusuf had suddenly left her life. After lunch, Yusuf told Hina that he would take her out to see the museum. Hina immediately got ready.

Yusuf told Hina about the importance of the antiques and their historical sources. He told her about different cultures, communities, religions and their signs and symbols. They also inquired about Hindu deities. At that time Hina realized that Yusuf was no longer the same man who used to call other religions evil and his religion the ultimate truth. She listened to him in complete astonishment. The museum had a lot of displays from the Mughal era. Many pieces of art from the Mughal period delicately depicted romance and sexuality. In many miniature paintings, one could see princes and noblemen engrossed in the pleasure of lovemaking. Hina looked at them for a moment and then turned towards the other section. Yusuf was able to sense that she was embarrassed by those paintings. He called Hina back and said that those paintings had no flaw; in fact they carried within them one of the essential truths of life. Running away from that was the beginning of making one’s life meaningless. He said that one must give birth to meaning in one’s life. Hina was silent. She was looking at the man who had always cursed her elder sisters for having conversations with men. That man who had regularly asked them to put their dupattas in place.

Since the day Hina had seen the picture of a beautiful nude woman in his room, she had a lot of questions in her mind. As Yusuf gave her the lesson of the truth of life, those questions became fresh in her mind again.