Download or read book The Hour Past Midnight written by Calmā and published by Zubaan Books. This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rabia is young and growing up in a conservative, closed community in southern India. One day, she and her friends sneak off to the pictures and are shocked by what they see on the screen. Caught on her return home, Rabia gets a beating from her mother, Zohra, who cries as she beats her daughter into submission-the only route to Rabia's survival. Firdaus is young and beautiful and of marriageable age. A groom is found for her, a wealthy man who lives and works abroad. On her wedding night, she takes one look at him and says, 'I'm not going to live with you, don't touch me!' and then is shocked at her own behaviour. How could she have been so daring? Inside their closed, male dominated world, Rabia, Rahima, Zohra, Amina, Khadija, Firdaus, Farida, Nuramma and many others make their small rebellions and compromises, friendships are made and broken, families come together and fall apart, and slowly, almost imperceptibly, change creeps in, and before they know it, the women's lives have changed forever. Salma's beautiful, evocative, poetic novel, recreates the busy, intricate, sometimes suffocating, and sometimes heartbreaking world of Muslim women in southern India.