In Custody: Chapter 7 Summary & Analysis

Hoping to catch Nur alone, Deven plans his visit at an unusual hour. But once again, there’s a huge crowd in his courtyard. Deven slips upstairs and enters Nur’s room, which is again completely dark. Nur asks if he has heard the news: Imtiaz is very sick, and no doctor can cure her. Nur blames her vigorous birthday celebration, as she collapsed the same night. Deven wonders if the older woman who arrived just before he left (Safiya) ended up beating Imtiaz nearly to death. Secretly, Deven is pleased that Imtiaz is sick, but Nur’s helplessness disgusts him. Deven tells Nur that perhaps Imtiaz just has a virus; Nur says that he hopes so. He thinks they should take her to the hospital (where she refuses to go). Deven enthusiastically agrees, less because he wants Imtiaz to recover than because he wants Nur all to himself.

Unable to find a drink for Nur, Deven decides to change the subject and ask Nur to start their interviews. Nur agrees, declaring: “before Time crushes us into dust we must record our struggle against it.” He says he wishes his secretary were around, so that he could dictate his old poems from his student days, but Deven explains that he can do the same with his tape recorder. Then, remembering that he still knows nothing about tape recorders, Deven starts to feel inadequate.

Deven explains that they just need to meet alone a few times, so that Nur can tell his life story and recite his poems. But Nur insists that he can do no such thing while Imtiaz is sick—especially because she will overhear everything, and she doesn’t like him reciting poetry anymore. Plus, he thinks she’s right: he'll “make a fool of [him]self” if he tries to recite more poetry. Deven furiously says that he’s wrong, but Nur orders Deven to be quiet. Suddenly, Ali comes inside and explains that Imtiaz wants to see both Deven and Nur. The men look at each other in confusion; Deven thinks the house is full of spies. But Ali helps Nur hobble over to her room anyway, and Deven follows.

Imtiaz is lying in her bed, looking sickly and wearing a bandage on her forehead, surrounded by followers and attendants. She tells Deven that he shouldn’t let Nur make any public appearances, lest he end up like her. Deven protests that this isn’t his plan, but Imtiaz says that she knows that “jackals from universities […] feed upon [the] carcasses” of poets, and that Deven wants to “tear at [Nur’s] living flesh.” Nur protests, but Imtiaz reiterates her warning. She asks Deven why he keeps visiting, and Deven says that he wants to pay his respects to Nur and hear his poetry. Imtiaz insists that Nur won’t recite anything. Nur agrees, but she still cries and says that she knows he will anyway. He promises not to and holds her hands.

Deven suddenly feels he must leave. He slowly backs out of Imtiaz’s room and runs down the stairs to the front door. He decides that he simply can’t record Nur at his home—they need to go somewhere else. But this will be challenging, since Nur can’t walk without help. Deven hopes Siddiqui can help find a solution. Before he leaves the courtyard, he hears a voice calling to him. He walks past a little girl in a doorway to another courtyard, where goats are tied up, clothes are drying, and an old woman (Safiya) is starting a cooking fire.

Deven realizes that this woman (Safiya) is the one who fought Imtiaz during his last visit. He figures that Nur has multiple wives, and she must be the eldest of them. She claims that Imtiaz is making up her illness in order to get Nur to stop spending time with Deven. Nur’s followers all hate Imtiaz, the old woman explains, and Imtiaz especially hates that Deven cares about Nur’s poetry as a form of art, and not just a source of entertainment. Imtiaz doesn’t want Nur to achieve fame or glory, she explains before putting a pot of dal on the fire and asking Deven to sit.

The old woman (Safiya) tells Deven to ignore Imtiaz, interview Nur, and write his book. She says that Nur is a great man and asks if Deven thinks so too. He declares that Nur is India’s greatest living Urdu poet, and he asks if the woman knows how he can get Nur alone to conduct his interviews. The woman agrees that Deven has to get Nur out of the house, because Imtiaz will never leave (or let Nur leave). The woman says she can sneak Nur out the back door, and Deven can rent a room somewhere in the same lane to do the interviews. She offers to arrange the room, too. Deven agrees and promises to send a message with a date and time for the interview.

Deven gets up to leave, but before he can, the woman (Safiya) tells him not to forget to pay Nur for his time. Poets’ families have to eat too, she says, and Deven should name his price in the message he sends. As he walks away, Deven wonders why Nur married such different women, and he concludes that he’ll have to give up on his project.