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Characters
The protagonist of the novel, Anjum is a fiery Hijra whose independence leads her to build a life for herself completely on the margins of society. Born intersex and gendered a boy by her mother, in childhood Anjum is known as Aftab. As a child, Aftab loves to sing, but stops when other children begin to tease him for having a feminine-sounding voice. One day, home from school after his sex-change operation, Aftab sees a Hijra, and is so entranced by her that he follows her to where she lives, which is the Khwabgah. Aftab begins to frequent the Khwabgah, where he finally feels he has found a home. At 15, he leaves his parent’s house to move to the Khwabgah for good where he eventually transforms into Anjum. At first, Anjum thinks the Khwabgah is a sort of paradise—it’s the first place where she’s able to express her female gender in the way she’s always wanted to. But when she is caught in a Hindu fundamentalist massacre of Muslim pilgrims while on a pilgrimage, she returns to the Khwabgah a changed woman, determined to raise her informally adopted daughter, Zainab, as a boy to protect her. When others object, Anjum leaves the Khwabgah for good—leaving behind even the five-year-old Zainab, who has become the person Anjum loves most in the world. From the Khwabgah, Anjum goes straight to a graveyard behind a government hospital, where she tries to recover from her trauma. Eventually, though, Anjum manages to build a home in the old graveyard—physically and metaphorically. She constructs a house around the graves of her ancestors, and invites many of Delhi’s marginalized and forgotten to keep her company. Among her most important companions are Saddam Hussain, who helps her to get started as a funeral services provider, and Imam Ziauddin, a blind old man who visits her in the graveyard since the very first day she arrives. Anjum is able to build a strong community around her new business, which she names Jannat Guest House and Funeral Services.
Anjum / Aftab Quotes in The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
The The Ministry of Utmost Happiness quotes below are all either spoken by Anjum / Aftab or refer to Anjum / Aftab. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 2
Quotes
Sarmad’s insubordinate spirit, intense, palpable and truer than any accumulation of historical facts could be, appeared to those who sought his blessings. It celebrated (but never preached) the value of spirituality over sacrament, simplicity over opulence and stubborn, ecstatic love even when faced with the prospect of annihilation.
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“But for us the price-rise and school-admissions and beating-husbands and cheating-wives are all inside us. The riot is inside us. The war is inside us. Indo-Pak is inside us. It will never settle down. It can’t.”
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“ Once you have fallen off the edge like all of us have […] you will never stop falling. And as you fall you will hold on to other falling people. The sooner you understand that the better. This place where we live, where we have made our home, is the place of falling people […] We aren’t even real. We don’t really exist.”
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Chapter 10
Quotes
So all in all, with a People’s Pool, a People’s Zoo and a People’s School, things were going well in the old graveyard. The same, however, could not be said of the Duniya.
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Chapter 12
Quotes
By the time they got back, the lights were all out and everybody was asleep. Everybody, that is, except Guih Kyom the dung beetle. He was wide awake and on duty, lying on his back with his legs in the air to save the world in case the heavens fell. But even he knew that things would turn out all right in the end. They would, because they had to. Because Miss Udaya Jebeen was come.
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Anjum / Aftab Quotes in The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
The The Ministry of Utmost Happiness quotes below are all either spoken by Anjum / Aftab or refer to Anjum / Aftab. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 2
Quotes
Sarmad’s insubordinate spirit, intense, palpable and truer than any accumulation of historical facts could be, appeared to those who sought his blessings. It celebrated (but never preached) the value of spirituality over sacrament, simplicity over opulence and stubborn, ecstatic love even when faced with the prospect of annihilation.
Related Characters:
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
“But for us the price-rise and school-admissions and beating-husbands and cheating-wives are all inside us. The riot is inside us. The war is inside us. Indo-Pak is inside us. It will never settle down. It can’t.”
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Explanation and Analysis:
“ Once you have fallen off the edge like all of us have […] you will never stop falling. And as you fall you will hold on to other falling people. The sooner you understand that the better. This place where we live, where we have made our home, is the place of falling people […] We aren’t even real. We don’t really exist.”
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Chapter 10
Quotes
So all in all, with a People’s Pool, a People’s Zoo and a People’s School, things were going well in the old graveyard. The same, however, could not be said of the Duniya.
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Chapter 12
Quotes
By the time they got back, the lights were all out and everybody was asleep. Everybody, that is, except Guih Kyom the dung beetle. He was wide awake and on duty, lying on his back with his legs in the air to save the world in case the heavens fell. But even he knew that things would turn out all right in the end. They would, because they had to. Because Miss Udaya Jebeen was come.
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