A Thousand Splendid Suns: Part II: Chapter 21 Summary & Analysis

Tariq, Laila, and Babi are in a taxi leaving Kabul on a day trip—the destination is Babi’s surprise, though he says it will contribute to Laila’s education. The landscape shifts from mountains to deserts and canyons with rock outcroppings, dotted with the black tents of Koochi nomads. Laila also glimpses burned-out cars and helicopters, and thinks that this is Abdul and Noor’s Afghanistan, not Kabul.

As they enter a valley, Babi points to ancient-looking red walls in the distance. They are Shahr-e-Zohak or the Red City, an ancient fortress built nine hundred years ago for defense. Genghis Khan’s grandson was killed trying to attack it, and Genghis Khan then destroyed it. The driver says that this is the story of Afghanistan—constantly invaded, and battered as a result, but still standing.

Half an hour later, they get out of the taxi and find themselves in front of two enormous Buddhas, chiseled into a rock cliff and flanked by caves. Babi says that Bamiyan had once been a thriving home of Buddhism before Islamic Arabs began to control it in the ninth century. Buddhist monks had lived in these sandstone cliffs, and had painted frescoes along the walls of their caves.

At the top, they look out over the Bamiyan Valley with its farming fields of winter wheat, alfalfa, and potatoes, crisscrossed by streams and dotted with tiny figures of women washing their clothes. Laila makes out people on the roofs of their mud brick dwellings, the main town road lined with poplars, and, beyond, the foothills and then the massive, snowcapped Hindu Kush. Babi says he wanted the children to see and feel their country’s heritage in person.

Babi says that he often brought Mammy up here, back when she was adventurous and alive. He smiles at the memories, and Laila knows she’ll always remember Babi in this way, happy and reminiscing. Tariq heads off to explore the caves, and Babi says to Laila that he also misses the boys, even if he shows it in a different way from Mammy. But he says he thanks God that he has Laila—he doesn’t know what he’d do without her. Sometimes, he continues, he has thoughts of leaving Afghanistan, maybe to Pakistan first and eventually to America, where they could open up an Afghan restaurant. Laila could go to school and even college, and in the meantime help out at the restaurant, which would host parties and birthdays for other Afghans fleeing the war.

When Babi is done, they both grow quiet, knowing that Mammy would never leave the land of her martyr sons—and Babi would never leave without her. Laila remembers Mammy saying that she had married a man with no convictions, but Laila knows that Mammy is the one constant conviction of his life.

Later, Tariq naps and Babi reads under the acacias. Laila dips her feet into the water and thinks about Babi’s dreams of America. She has to admit to herself that she is partly glad they can’t go—she would miss Giti, Hasina, and especially Tariq, as irrational as wanting to stay in a disintegrating country might be.

Six months later, in April 1988, Babi returns home to announce that a treaty has been signed in Geneva. Mammy claims that the communist puppet president, Najibullah, is still staying. She won’t celebrate until the Mujahideen march in victory in Kabul.