When Nazneen is born prematurely in 1967 in rural Bangladesh, her survival is left to fate rather than medical intervention. But, after an anxious silence, she finally splutters into life.
On seeing that she is a girl, her father says: “Never mind. What can you do?” “What could not be changed must be borne,” the adult Nazneen reflects. “And since nothing could be changed, everything had to be borne.”
