How It All Goes Down
A Sense of Love
- It's been four years since the mausoleum began being built for her mother, and Jahanara is psyched about the progress.
- Sure, tons of dudes have died during construction, but, like, not as many as could have.
- Jahanara's father is visiting to inspect the progress, and while he's there, he reveals the mausoleum's name: Taj Mahal. Taj was his nickname for his wife when they were in private, an evolution from her full endearment, Mumtaz Mahal.
- Jahanara tries to be all sly and asks her father what he would have done if he couldn't have married her mother. It's a ruse that's about as opaque as Saran Wrap.
- Jahanara's dad, seeing right through it, basically gives her his blessing to pursue her affair with Isa, but he warns her that it needs to be kept a well-guarded secret.
- In response, Jahanara acts like an idiot and starts giving Isa the cold shoulder out of frustration. Sigh.
- After a few weeks, Jahanara's father asks her to settle a dispute between some nobles who live out of town. Jahanara travels out there, but surprise—good old dad tricked her and arranged for Isa to meet her for a tryst at an inn by the Ganges river.
- Isa and Jahanara spend three days being sappy as all get out and making love every chance they get.
- When the three days they've been allotted come to an end, Jahanara is angry and frustrated that she and Isa can't be together at home.
- Isa is optimistic that they'll find a way to be together. Somehow.