The Ministry Of Utmost Happiness

Jumping backwards in time, the narrator recounts the first several decades of Anjum’s life. She was born to Jahanara Begum and Mulaqat Ali—a “hakim, a doctor of herbal medicine, and a lover of Urdu and Persian poetry” (16) who prided himself on being descended (at least in theory) from a Mongol emperor. When Anjum was born, the midwife, Ahlam Baji, mistook her for a boy, and her parents named her Aftab. Jahanara quickly discovered that Aftab was actually intersex but was too frightened to tell her husband. Instead, she resolved to pray at a dargah (shrine) to Hazrat Sarmad Shaheed—an Armenian convert to Islam who was eventually executed for expressing religious doubts.

Without knowing the story behind the shrine, Jahanara faithfully prayed for years for Aftab to be “heal[ed]” (15). However, when Aftab passed the age at which boys were traditionally circumcised, Jahanara realized she needed to tell her husband the truth. Mulaqat responded by taking Aftab to a doctor, who said that surgery and medication could physically transform Aftab into a boy, but that he would likely have “Hijra tendencies” (21). Mulaqat ignored this and began to save up money for the treatment.

Meanwhile, Aftab had encountered a Hijra living at the Khwabgah (“House of Dreams”) near Anjum’s home.