An older Muslim man and a friend of Mulaqat Ali, with whom Anjum travels to Gujarat to go to an important Muslim shrine to seek spiritual assistance for Zainab’s ill health. On their journey, Zakir Mian and Anjum are caught up in a Hindu fundamentalist massacre of Muslim pilgrims. Zakir Mian is murdered, but Anjum, because she is a Hijra, and killing Hijras supposedly brings bad luck, is spared.
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Zakir Mian Character Timeline in The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
The timeline below shows where the character Zakir Mian appears in The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2
...So, once Zainab has gotten a little better, Anjum resolves to make the trip with Zakir Mian , an old friend of her father’s, “too old to be embarrassed about being seen...
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...the Khwabgah to see if they can find out what has happened to Anjum and Zakir Mian , whom they haven’t heard from. They look closely at footage of Muslim refugee camps...
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...without hearing anything from Anjum. By that time, “the murdering [has] grown sporadic,” and Mansoor, Zakir Mian ’s son, goes to Ahmedabad to see if he can find his father. On the...
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...with her mind, she tries to shut out memories of what happened to her and Zakir Mian , but is unable to. She remembers how the Hindu extremists, “saffron parakeets with steel...
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...the years, Anjum’s grief subsides—her memories of the saffron parakeets of Gujarat dim and of Zakir Mian “will not go away” but become “a constant but undemanding companion.” As she heals, Anjum...
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