Brick Lane

Nazneen chooses a celebratory red-and-gold sari to wear for what will become a momentous day in her life. Inexplicably, she sits down to sew in this regal costume, and as decorative gold chains interfere with her sewing, she fantasizes that changing her clothing will liberate her from the chains of her heritage. When she ventures out to purchase thread, she passes the meeting hall and encounters the secretary, who repeats the mantra: “Get on the train of repentance, sister, before it leaves your station.” Inside, she comes face to face with the Questioner, who is preoccupied with a pile of papers that he repeatedly “shuffles and straightens.”

Judgment Day has arrived and the ceremony is marked by a musician with “two black tents,” actually a pair of women who formerly wore hijabs and have now upgraded to burkas. In addition, there is a black man in the center of the group representing the sexual priest in a gray felt cap and baggy white robe and naming all the religions he has sampled and then repeating the phrase “loose and lax.” As the hall fills, Nazneen is “dizzy with relief” that she wore her red-and-gold sari while anticipating that her lover will be speaking to the crowd saying words meant just for her ears.