I just got done reading The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson. When I happened to go look at DA’s blog, it happened to be his review of this book. I recognized the author’s name from here, and with my interest piqued by DA I had to mention this book to my wife, who got it from the library.

News of Willow's soon-to-be-released graphic novel reminded me of Finding East, an excellent short story by my fellow Bangladeshi and old classmate Javed. See if you can spot the comics references =)

Ch. 1 Available Here

Ch. 2: In the evening Ayaz was sent to the neighborhoods to collect dinner for the Imam and his families from the generous neighbors. He walked gingerly because he was still sore from his morning beating. He held a steel pail in one hand. Rahim, an evening student, who only attended from the mid-afternoon to the night-prayer, walked besides Ayaz, carrying a multicolored cloth in which he wrapped the bread given for the madrassa's students. 

Except for Jamshed Street the gulleys were narrow and unpaved.  The doors to almost all of the houses were open. However, a heavy khaki curtain hung in the doorways, preventing outsiders from peeking inside. It was an unsaid rule that you did not enter a house unannounced. What, with the women almost always walking around without doopattas or any other type of hair covering. Even though this was a city, honor was still an important thing here. The boys approached each curtain, hitting the pail with a big wooden spoon and waited for someone to come to the door. The tradition of the students from the madrassas coming to collect food from the neighbors dated back hundreds of years. There was a mutual symbiosis between the families and the madrassa. The school took in many of the students from the city and nearby towns, keeping them busy, giving them a strict moral education and free board, while the neighbors provided food for the students every few nights. Upon graduation, these students, obedient and pliable, moral and deemed religious on account of their rote memorization of the Quran, usually married into the neighborhood's families, adopted their business and things went as on before.