Rehana Alam

The Tea Trolley Rehana Alam

Finding a Husband Is Never Easy... And it becomes even trickier when your parents are trying to arrange a match for you. The story takes place in 1979, in Pakistan, where the parents of 18-year-old Amna are working to arrange her marriage. Amna attempts to balance her desire to continue her education with the supposed need to take advantage of a young girl's 'window of opportunity, ' lest she be left a spinster. Amna meets suitor after suitor. Sometimes she is rejected and sometimes the prospective partner does not meet the standard set by her parents. The encounters provide laughter, outrage and even soul searching. Can Amna leave the most momentous decision of her life in the hands of her parents? Can she attain both her ambition and marriage? The Tea Trolley provides double pleasure as friends and family interweave twelve tales of love and loss into the narrative. These tales are links in the chain of Amna's story. They emphasize that a happy marriage is often the basis of a happy life, even though finding the right mate remains a gamble. Ultimately, these tales coalesce in surprising patterns, resolving Amna's dilemma in a novel and unexpected way