The school continued to lose money. Months would pass and they could not pay the teachers’ wages or the school rent. The goldsmith kept coming and demanding his money for my mother’s wedding bangles. My father would make him good tea and offer him biscuits in the hope that would keep him satisfied. Hidayatullah laughed. ‘You think he will be happy with tea? He wants his money.’

学校持续在赔钱。几个月过去了，他们付不出老师的薪水，也没办法缴学校的房租。金匠还不断来家里，讨要当初卖给母亲的婚礼手镯的钱。每次，父亲就会泡好茶给他喝，招待他吃饼干，希望能让他息怒。希达亚图拉笑父亲说：“你以为喝杯茶他就会高兴了吗？他想要的是他的钱。”

The situation became so dire that my father was forced to sell the gold bangles. In our culture wedding jewellery is a bond between the couple. Often women sell their jewellery to help set up their husbands in business or to pay their fares to go abroad. My mother had already offered her bangles to pay for my father’s nephew to go to college, which my father had rashly promised to fund – fortunately, my father’s cousin Jehan Sher Khan had stepped in – and she did not realise the bangles were only partly paid for. She was then furious when she learned that my father did not get a good price for them.

当时的情况实在太差了，父亲终究不得不把金手镯卖掉。在我们的文化里，结婚的珠宝是两个人结合的象征。妇女常常会变卖首饰，来帮助先生创业，或支付他们出国的费用。在我父亲草率答应要帮助侄子支付大学学费时，我母亲已经主动拿出手镯了。不过那次，父亲的亲戚雅贾汗.舍尔出手帮助。母亲也并不知道买手镯的钱其实只付清了一部分。当她发现父亲卖手镯换来的钱少了的时候，还大发了一场脾气。

Just when it seemed matters could not get worse, the area was hit by flash floods. There was a day when it did not stop raining and in the late afternoon there was a warning of flooding. Everyone had to leave the district. My mother was away and Hidayatullah needed my father to help him move everything up to the first floor, safe from the fast-rising waters, but he couldn’t find him anywhere. He went outside, shouting ‘Ziauddin, Ziauddin!’ The search almost cost Hidayatullah his life. The narrow street outside the school was totally flooded and he was soon up to his neck in water. There were live electric cables hanging loose and swaying in the wind. He watched paralysed with fear as they almost touched the water. Had they done so, he would have been electrocuted.

正当一切看起来不能再糟的时候，他们遇上了大洪水。当时，下了一整天的暴雨，接近傍晚时刻，发布了洪水警报，要求所有人撤离。我的母亲出门了，希达亚图拉需要父亲帮忙，好把所有的东西搬到楼上，以免被水淹没。但他到处都找不到我的父亲。他跑到屋外，大喊：“齐亚乌丁！齐亚乌丁！”为了回头去找父亲，希达亚图拉差点赔上了性命。学校外面的小路已经完全被淹没了，很快洪水淹到了他的脖子。还通着电的电缆线垂在风中摇摇晃晃，看到电线几乎要接触到水面，希达亚图拉吓得动弹不得。如果当时电线触水，他就会触电了。