‘The Girl from Foreign’

Sadia Shepard, whose mother is Pakistani Muslim, father is Christian and maternal grandmother is Indian Jewish, went to India on a Fulbright to trace her family history. Here’s an excerpt from The Girl from Foreign, which I’ve just begun:

I take a seat in the phone booth and look up the phone number of one of the two Pune synagogues in my notebook; I dial the number of one of its directors… [and] ask if I can make an appointment to come and see the synagogue the following day. I hear him put the phone to one side and say to someone else in the room: ‘It’s a Muslim name…’

He returns to the line, polite and firm: ‘I’m afraid it won’t be possible. You will please call back in one week’s time.’ And the line goes dead, abruptly.

At the phone booth, she met Rekhev, her future fling:

He has a studious air, and there’s something comfortable and musty about him… he smells like books… ‘Do you know where I can find something to eat?’ I ask after him…

‘I’ll take you to my favorite place’… It occurs to me after we’ve been walking for twenty minutes that I don’t know his name…

We arrive at a place called Lucky, a small basement-level canteen with fluorescent-tube lights. ‘All the great Indian filmmakers spent time in this cafe,’ the young man says, introducing me to the dingy room with a small sweep of his hand. This place holds some kind of magic for him, and I look around, trying to see it.