Anjum / Aftab Character Analysis in The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

The protagonist of the novel, Anjum is a fiery Hijra whose independence leads her to build a life for herself completely on the margins of society. Born intersex and gendered a boy by her mother, in childhood Anjum is known as Aftab. As a child, Aftab loves to sing, but stops when other children begin to tease him for having a feminine-sounding voice. One day, home from school after his sex-change operation, Aftab sees a Hijra, and is so entranced by her that he follows her to where she lives, which is the Khwabgah. Aftab begins to frequent the Khwabgah, where he finally feels he has found a home. At 15, he leaves his parent’s house to move to the Khwabgah for good where he eventually transforms into Anjum. At first, Anjum thinks the Khwabgah is a sort of paradise—it’s the first place where she’s able to express her female gender in the way she’s always wanted to. But when she is caught in a Hindu fundamentalist massacre of Muslim pilgrims while on a pilgrimage, she returns to the Khwabgah a changed woman, determined to raise her informally adopted daughter, Zainab, as a boy to protect her. When others object, Anjum leaves the Khwabgah for good—leaving behind even the five-year-old Zainab, who has become the person Anjum loves most in the world. From the Khwabgah, Anjum goes straight to a graveyard behind a government hospital, where she tries to recover from her trauma. Eventually, though, Anjum manages to build a home in the old graveyard—physically and metaphorically. She constructs a house around the graves of her ancestors, and invites many of Delhi’s marginalized and forgotten to keep her company. Among her most important companions are Saddam Hussain, who helps her to get started as a funeral services provider, and Imam Ziauddin, a blind old man who visits her in the graveyard since the very first day she arrives. Anjum is able to build a strong community around her new business, which she names Jannat Guest House and Funeral Services.

Anjum / Aftab Quotes in The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

The The Ministry of Utmost Happiness quotes below are all either spoken by Anjum / Aftab or refer to Anjum / Aftab. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

Corruption, Political Violence, and Capitalism Theme Icon

Sarmad’s insubordinate spirit, intense, palpable and truer than any accumulation of historical facts could be, appeared to those who sought his blessings. It celebrated (but never preached) the value of spirituality over sacrament, simplicity over opulence and stubborn, ecstatic love even when faced with the prospect of annihilation.

Related Characters: Anjum / Aftab, Jahanara

Page Number and Citation: 14

Explanation and Analysis:

“But for us the price-rise and school-admissions and beating-husbands and cheating-wives are all inside us. The riot is inside us. The war is inside us. Indo-Pak is inside us. It will never settle down. It can’t.”

Related Characters: Nimmo (speaker), Anjum / Aftab

Page Number and Citation: 27

Explanation and Analysis:

“ Once you have fallen off the edge like all of us have […] you will never stop falling. And as you fall you will hold on to other falling people. The sooner you understand that the better. This place where we live, where we have made our home, is the place of falling people […] We aren’t even real. We don’t really exist.”

Related Characters: Anjum / Aftab (speaker), Saddam Hussain

Page Number and Citation: 88

Explanation and Analysis:

So all in all, with a People’s Pool, a People’s Zoo and a People’s School, things were going well in the old graveyard. The same, however, could not be said of the Duniya.

Related Characters: Anjum / Aftab, Tilo, Zainab

Page Number and Citation: 405

Explanation and Analysis:

By the time they got back, the lights were all out and everybody was asleep. Everybody, that is, except Guih Kyom the dung beetle. He was wide awake and on duty, lying on his back with his legs in the air to save the world in case the heavens fell. But even he knew that things would turn out all right in the end. They would, because they had to. Because Miss Udaya Jebeen was come.

Related Characters: Anjum / Aftab, Miss Jebeen the Second / Miss Udaya Jebeen

Page Number and Citation: 444

Explanation and Analysis:

Anjum / Aftab Character Timeline in The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

The timeline below shows where the character Anjum / Aftab appears in The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Gender Identity, Social Division, and Coexistence Theme Icon

Social Hierarchy vs. Social Inclusivity Theme Icon

The woman, who introduces herself as Anjum, has lived in the graveyard behind the government hospital for several months, and it was... (full context)

In addition to listening to music and convening with the vultures, Anjum enjoys reading. She makes a habit of reading the newspaper aloud to Ziauddin. One day,... (full context)

Anjum doesn’t answer the question, but by way of response asks the blind old man what... (full context)

To this, Ziauddin has no response, and he ends his visit earlier than usual. Still, Anjum knows he’ll be back—she’s lonely, and she knows he is too. They need each other.... (full context)

Anjum is born the fourth of five children. The first three are girls. At birth, the... (full context)

...own child. Of course, she remembers, even in Urdu there are words for people like Aftab: Hijra and Kinnar. Still, she thinks to herself “two words do not make a language.... (full context)

...resolves to keep her baby’s gender a secret. But she does decide to take little Aftab to a sacred place to bless him, the shrine of Hazrat Sarmad Shaheed. She doesn’t... (full context)

...faced with the prospect of annihilation.” Jahanara asks the spirit of Shaheed to bless her Aftab, and he does. (full context)

Aftab passes as a normal boy until he is five years old. Jahanara waits for his... (full context)

The time comes for Aftab to have his circumcision, and although Jahanara attempts to put off this rite of passage,... (full context)

Mulaqat comes to the conclusion that he and his wife need to take Aftab to Dr. Ghulam Nabi, a “sexologist.” Dr. Nabi declares that Aftab is not technically a... (full context)

Mulaqat decides Aftab will get the gender-change surgery, and while he saves up money, he resolves to tell... (full context)

Aftab follows the fascinating woman all the way down the street until she enters a house... (full context)

Every day, Aftab stands outside the house, which he learns is called the Khwabgah, or “house of dreams.”... (full context)

One day, Nimmo asks Aftab why God made Hijras. She answers her own question, saying that it was an experiment,... (full context)

When Nimmo says this, Aftab wants to say she’s wrong, because he loves the Khwabgah. But a couple years later,... (full context)

At first, Jahanara begs Aftab to leave the Khwabgah, but he refuses. She resolves to meet with him every so... (full context)

Finally, at the Khwabgah, Anjum is able to dress the way she’s always dreamed of. She gets her nose pierced... (full context)

Anjum decides to have the surgery with Dr. Mukhtar, who works with many of the residents... (full context)

When Anjum announces that she wants to leave the Khwabgah, no one takes her seriously at first.... (full context)

Zainab is the person Anjum loves most in this world, whom she finds one day, an abandoned baby, on the... (full context)

Unfamiliar with the rites of motherhood, Anjum spoils Zainab at first. Discovering Zainab’s love for animals, Anjum gifts her a baby goat.... (full context)

When Zainab turns five, Anjum takes her to have singing lessons with Ustad Hameed, her old music teacher. Sadly, the... (full context)

In addition to possibly hexing Zainab, Saeeda has also stolen Anjum’s spot as the most famous Hijra in Delhi. Her modern image and ability to switch... (full context)

One day, Anjum hears commotion in the Khwabgah and, fearing the worst, runs downstairs with Zainab. What she... (full context)

Anjum sees on the news that “all the prisons [are] full of young Muslim men” and... (full context)

The two set off for Ajmer, and, for the first three days, Anjum calls the Khwabgah every day to check on Zainab. After the third day, the residents... (full context)

...on at the Khwabgah to see if they can find out what has happened to Anjum and Zakir Mian, whom they haven’t heard from. They look closely at footage of Muslim... (full context)

The Khwabgah goes two months without hearing anything from Anjum. By that time, “the murdering [has] grown sporadic,” and Mansoor, Zakir Mian’s son, goes to... (full context)

Anjum’s strange mood lasts for many weeks. She teaches Zainab a strange chant that nobody knows—the... (full context)

Ustad Kulsoom Bi does not like what Anjum has done with Zainab, and calls an emergency meeting. She speaks proudly of the history... (full context)

Anjum’s attention returns to the meeting, where Ustad Kulsoom Bi continues to speak proudly of the... (full context)

Anjum protests, insisting that Zainab is her child and she will do as she pleases with... (full context)

Thinking Anjum is crazy for wanting to leave, the women of the Khwabgah go and visit Dr.... (full context)

Growing increasingly restless and unhappy, Anjum burns Dr. Bhagat’s prescription, along with a collection of photographs and articles of her that... (full context)

Anjum sets up her belongings next to her father’s grave, among the “smack addicts” and stray... (full context)

Instead of killing her, the mob simply made her “chant their slogans,” and Anjum remembers repeating “Victory to Mother India!” While she suffers with her traumas in the graveyard,... (full context)

Over the years, Anjum’s grief subsides—her memories of the saffron parakeets of Gujarat dim and of Zakir Mian “will... (full context)

With time, Anjum’s home grows and grows. Imam Ziauddin eventually moves in permanently, and Anjum builds rooms over... (full context)

Many of Anjum’s guests are other Hijras who have “fallen out of, or been expelled from, the tightly... (full context)

That Eid, Anjum hires a popular butcher to perform the sacrifice. Anjum dresses as a man to take... (full context)

...guest arrives at Jannat Guest House: a young man who has dubbed himself Saddam Hussain. Anjum takes a liking to him, and offers him extremely cheap rent. Saddam works at the... (full context)

Saddam tells Anjum the story of how he burned his eyes looking at a tree. Previously, he was... (full context)

Saddam soon partners with Anjum and Imam Ziauddin to begin another odd job when Anwar Bhai, the owner of a... (full context)

...expected, Jannat Guest House and Funeral Services isn’t the typical funeral parlor. Indeed, like guests, Anjum either warmly welcomes or roaringly rejects petitions from those who want to be buried on... (full context)

Anjum and Saddam live together, but don’t spend much time in one another’s company. Anjum likes... (full context)

Saddened by the rise of the political right in her country, Anjum goes outside with Saddam and Biroo, their dog, to enjoy some tea. She begins to... (full context)

Out of affection for Anjum, Saddam doesn’t push the conversation further. Indeed, in that moment, he realizes she’s the person... (full context)

...“splashed through puddles of his father’s blood as if it were rainwater,” and says to Anjum, “I was part of the mob that killed my father.” (full context)

Hearing Saddam’s words, Anjum remembers her traumatic experience with a Hindu extremist mob. Saddam goes on to say how... (full context)

Once they have finished talking, Anjum and Saddam go back inside, where they “continue[] to float through their lives like a... (full context)

This is the sight that Anjum, Saddam Hussain, Ustad Hameed, Nimmo and their companion Ishrat, a visiting Hijra from Indore, see... (full context)

...The mothers decide that the baby ought to be handed over to the police, but Anjum has a different idea and protests. But she is shut down by someone who jokes... (full context)

...Mr. Aggarwal, who aims to establish himself as a leader by settling the conflict between Anjum and the Mothers of the Disappeared. Anjum insults the man heavily, but before the conflict... (full context)

Saddam Hussain and Ishrat are on a horseback “slow-goose chase” through the city. Anjum has sent them to follow an auto-rickshaw, and, on this journey, the two pass through... (full context)

...dark glasses and an older man. Older woman. Man. Woman-man.” The woman introduces herself as Anjum, and says she and her friend Saddam Hussain have come to collect Tilo’s things for... (full context)

When the posse arrives at Jannat Guest House and Funeral Services, Anjum is waiting. She has set up a party to welcome Tilo and the baby, and... (full context)

...House community with Miss Jebeen the Second, even though she has received Biplab’s message through Anjum and Saddam Hussain. In all this time, Tilo still hasn’t heard from Musa, but she... (full context)

...has grown more family-like. Ustad Hameed begins giving singing lessons to promising students there, which Anjum attends (although she refuses to sing). Zainab comes around often to help Anjum and Tilo... (full context)

Anjum even arranges for Jannat Guest House to have a swimming pool—“Why should only rich people... (full context)

...a Prime Minister who aligns with their political beliefs, the “saffron parakeet” Hindu fundamentalists that Anjum so fears have infiltrated “university campuses and courtrooms” alike. Centuries of Muslim rulers are removed... (full context)

Shortly after on Independence Day, Anjum and Saddam Hussain are watching TV when they hear Zainab screaming from outside. She is... (full context)

...heroism gives Saddam Hussain a boost of confidence, and he decides that night to ask Anjum for Zainab’s hand in marriage. Anjum responds sassily, asking him why Zainab should marry a... (full context)

Anjum, ultimately, is delighted to accept Saddam Hussain as her son-in-law, and wedding preparations are soon... (full context)

Concerned for the ghost of Saddam’s father, Anjum suggests they give him a proper burial at Jannat Funeral Services. So the group buys... (full context)

...where all of Jannat Guest House’s community members are present to celebrate. After the wedding, Anjum takes the two to the shrine of Hazrat Sarmad Shaheed, where her own mother took... (full context)

...morning, Dr. Azad Bhartiya comes to Jannat Guest House and Funeral Services with a letter. Anjum, Tilo, Saddam Hussain and Miss Jebeen the Second gather round to read the letter aloud.... (full context)

That night, Anjum is too restless to sleep. She decides to go for a walk and takes Miss... (full context)