Prologue

11:30 PM (April 23rd).
Seema ran home from the hospital, in the pitch black night, battling the heavy rain and breeze. She was scared, not for her daughter, but about the wheat, that she had kept to dry on her terrace, under the hot April Sun. Yes, it was raining heavily in April, and it was rarely heard of. Usually the crops were half dead by the end of April, all thanks to shortage of water and bad irrigation facilities provided by the state.
She ran, inspite of the nagging pain in her joints. She ran like she never had before.
She reached home, ran up the stairs, two at a time, almost tripped over the cat. Her grains were washed out. That was the last of the stock, in the house. She cried.
She thought, not of her daughter, lying in the hospital, but of how she was going to manage the house with precious grains all washed away. She cursed, not her fate, but her daughter's would be child, all set to be born on this damned day.
12:03 AM (April 24th)
Meanwhile, at the hospital her daughter, Kaneez, gave birth to a tiny little baby girl, dark and skinny. And she was proud of her small bundle of joy. She named her pride, she named her hope. She named her Nazia.