Sexual awakening is a major theme of the book but so is communal identity as the story takes place between 1943 and 1948 when India gained independence but was split into two countries.

They find out that she is living in the Kotha, the disreputable part of the old city with Ice-Candy-man, one of her former admirers who has now transformed himself into an Urdu poet but pimps her out and represses Ayah ruthlessly.

The book is made up of many lively and interesting anecdotes, some of them related to Partition, but just as many to Lenny's personal development and the unique position of the Parsis in Lahore and in India.

Some of the chapters carry forward the plot but many of them do not but they leave an indelible impression of a community in a place that was permanently transformed in a matter of months.

Similar to the main character Lenny, Sidhwa is Parsi, contracted polio as a child, grew up in Lahore, and was nine years old during the Partition of India.

[2][4] Additionally, the scene in which ayah's lover is found in the road reflects one of Sidhwa's real memories from the time:I was actually walking to my private tutor, and there was this gunnysack lying by the roadside.