Good Advice Is Rarer Than Rubies
Summary:
This story is about a lady named Rehana. She is going to get permission to England and is waiting outside the British Embassy.
Outside she meets a man named Muhammad Ali, he is a poor bus driver. The bus driver wants to give Rehana some advice for only a small cost, but Rehana have no money.
Muhammad didn’t give up, and because she was so beautiful he gave her the advice for free.
He told her that going into the Embassy was her biggest mistake. When he started to answer her question she understood that he was helping her.
He went through the presentation that she was going to have in the embassy. When she was done he told her that it would cost more than a big smile and her truth in some questions.
They would ask all kinds of questions and if she answered wrong at any of the questions she was finished, she would lose her dignity if she went inside.
But Muhammad really surprised her when he told her that he had some contacts and could get Rehana a false passport.
Rehana got very unsure about what she was going to do, since it was in fact illegal.
As determined as she was, she walked away and went into the line where all the women stood waiting to go into the embassy.
When she got out in the street again, Muhammad Ali was there waiting for her.
She grabbed him in the arm and when they sat on the front bumper she told him about her life.
She was going to England to meet the man her parents chose for her when she was a little girl.
In the end she also told him that she got the questions wrong and she was not going to England. She was not sad, in fact it seemed that this was the best thing that could happen to her.
The story ends with Rehana turning back to her job as nanny for three good boys, without a passport so she could travel to England.
Setting:
The story takes place in the multimillion city Lahore in Pakistan. The year is 1970, and we are in the gates of the British Embassy.
Point of view:
“Good Advice Is Rarer Than Rubies,” is written in 3rd person narrator that stands outside the story. The narrator has got some sight in the main characters thoughts and life.
This makes him able to give us a bit background information that we would not get, if he didn`t know their thoughts. For example he says about Muhammad Ali: "Miss Rehana eyes where large and black and shiny enough not to need help af antomony, and when the advice expert Muhammad Ali saw them, he felt himself becoming young again." The text also contains a lot of dialog between the two main characters, Miss Rehana and Muhammad Ali.
Theme/Moral:
We think that the theme in this story is very complex. In the story we have people that have to s probably arranged marriage and how it is to be an immigrant in other countries.
The moral in this story is to do the right thing and be happy for what you have.
Character description:
Miss Rehana : Miss Rehana is a beautiful Indian woman, with large, black and shiny eyes. She is described as very independent by some of the other characters in the story.
Because of her beauty, she often gets special treatment from other men that like her. Muhammad Ali did for example notice her because of her beauty,
And thought that she would be easy to trick. She did not want his advice, and acted like she was very clever woman, and does not want this Muhammad Ali`s good advice.
Muhammad Ali: Muhammad Ali is an "advice expert" and a poor bus driver, which makes money out of fooling people outside the British Embassy in India.
He tricks other people that pays him a larger amount of money, so that he can fix them illegal papers to Britain.
As soon as he gets their money, they never sees him again.
Relations between characters:
In this story Miss Rehana meets Muhammad Ali outside the British Embassy. She is there to reply entrance and passport to Britain, while Mohammad Ali is there to trick money out of naive people. Miss Rehana is a clever woman, and does not want this Muhammad Ali`s good advice.
He change his mind about tricking Miss her, and does after some time actually want to help.
He waits at her outside the Embassy, while she`s inside. Muhammad Ali felt sorry for Miss Rehana when she did not receive passport and entrance to Britain, and the story end with the two of them walking to buy some pakora (fried vegetables).