Amil and the After: Chapters 8–16

by Veera Hiranandani
This companion novel to The Night Diary focuses on twelve-year-old Amil Vaswani, who is encouraged by his twin sister Nisha to use a sketchbook to draw out his feelings about their new life in 1948 Bombay.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–7, Chapters 8–16, Chapters 17–27
35 words 9 learners

Learn words with Flashcards and other activities

Definition First
Print Flashcards

Other learning activities

Answer a few questions about each word. Use this to prep for your next quiz! Compete with other teams in real time to see who answers the most questions correctly! Test your spelling acumen. Read the definition, listen to the word and try spelling it!

Teaching tools

Create and assign quizzes to your students to test their vocabulary. Assign learning activities including Practice, Vocabulary Jams and Spelling Bees to your students, and monitor their progress in real-time.

Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. warp
    bend or twist out of shape
    They played on a new wooden chess board that Kazi had found at the junk shop. It was much smaller than the one they had in Mirpur Khas and cheaply made. The board was slightly warped, and the hollow pieces kept falling over.
  2. rummage
    search haphazardly
    “Papa just sees the naughty boy who rummaged through his stuff and knocked over the ink. Now his desk is ruined.”
  3. inverted
    being in an upside-down position
    A 3 looked like an unfinished 8. What was uglier, a 4 or a 7? Why did a 2 look like a 5? Why were 1’s so boring? Then, of course, there were the inverted twins, 9 and 6.
  4. muss
    make messy or untidy
    Nisha came to the table, too, her hair a little mussed, sleepiness in her eyes.
  5. upholster
    provide furniture with comfortable padding or covers
    She spent afternoons sitting in her soft green upholstered chair, murmuring some of her favorite songs or prayers, holding her sewing in her lap.
  6. tinge
    a pale or subdued color
    Dadi said the journey here had made her feel much older than her sixty years. Amil could see it, too, in her trembling hands, the grayish tinge to her skin.
  7. vein
    a blood vessel that carries blood toward the heart
    He thought of the blood running through her veins and wished he could fill them with some kind of magic healing liquid to cause her to stand up as if she were a young girl again, her eyes as clear as cold water.
  8. loom
    appear very large or occupy a commanding position
    Rakesh had walked up and now loomed over him.
  9. mutton
    meat from a mature domestic sheep
    He could smell the rich, savory keema that Kazi was preparing with ground mutton and peas. Amil wondered where he got the mutton. They hadn’t had meat in months, and Amil’s mouth watered.
  10. anxious
    causing or fraught with or showing nervousness
    He started pacing around the little room, his legs itching with anxious energy. “I don’t care how angry Papa gets. I can’t shake the feeling that something terrible has happened.”
  11. glare
    look at with a fixed or angry gaze
    He saw himself on their walk knocking the water over in the desert, and Papa glaring at him like he had killed someone.
  12. causeway
    a road that is raised above water, marshland, or sand
    They walked toward Colaba Causeway, then up the road about a mile north.
  13. dote
    shower with love; show excessive affection for
    Then he touched the boy’s forehead as if he were checking for a fever. The boy said he was fine but never took his hand off his hurt arm. The father kept his hand lightly on the boy’s back. Amil couldn’t imagine his own papa doting on him like that.
  14. frail
    physically weak
    “She doesn’t want you to see her so frail.”
    “I don’t think she’d mind,” Amil said. They had already seen one another at death’s door, so what did it matter?
  15. occasionally
    now and then or here and there
    Amil noticed an apron hanging by the spice cupboard. It used to be Dadi’s, and then Kazi adopted it. It made Amil think about when he was very little and Dadi would cook occasionally.
  16. leisurely
    not hurried or forced
    He saw them walking together, perhaps leisurely strolling at Chowpatty Beach with kulfi pops.
  17. cascade
    rush down in big quantities
    “Oh,” he said, his mind suddenly cascading with thoughts, one spilling over another.
  18. threadbare
    thin and tattered with age
    He noticed the difference between his solid leather sandals and Vishal’s threadbare ones, the leather scuffed on the sides.
  19. slight
    being of delicate or slender build
    Rakesh towered over Vishal’s slight figure, and his poufy hair made him seem even taller.
  20. brahmin
    a member of the highest, or priestly, class among the Hindus
    “I’m an untouchable,” Vishal continued, “and I’m also a Brahmin. It’s all connected, and yet what does it really mean? So let us eat in peace, man.”
  21. caste
    a hereditary social class among Hindus
    He’d heard more about caste in Bombay than he ever had before. People didn’t talk about it in Mirpur Khas. “Papa says we’re not any caste, just Sindhi Hindus because that’s where we’re from.”
  22. hobble
    walk unevenly due to pain, injury, or weakness
    He set her down on her feet, handed her a cane, and helped her hobble to her chair.
  23. sallow
    unhealthy looking
    “No,” she said, smiling with her mouth but not with her eyes, her skin still sallow.
  24. knead
    manually manipulate, for medicinal or relaxation purposes
    Even though the night was warm, Dadi’s feet looked cold. He started to massage them, kneading her ankles and the bottoms of her feet firmly with his forefingers and thumbs. He wanted to distract her from the pain in her hip.
  25. stubble
    short hairs growing on a man's face when he has not shaved
    “Well,” Papa said, rubbing the stubble on his chin, “if that’s what you want, then I’ll teach you more.”
  26. formal
    refined or imposing in manner or appearance
    Amil walked a little closer, his head held high. He thought of how Vishal sometimes acted very formal and polite. It always confused the other person in a good way.
  27. spoke
    a rod joining the hub of a wheel to the rim
    Then, in a narrow beam of light shining through a thin gap between the wall and the ceiling, he saw it—the gleam of chrome, the spokes of two wheels, the rise of handlebars.
  28. stuffy
    lacking fresh air
    Amil shrugged, and they followed him, relieved to be out of the stuffy back room.
  29. straddle
    sit or stand astride of
    Girls were told that straddling the bike was improper, which Amil didn’t think was fair.
  30. determine
    find out or learn with certainty, as by making an inquiry
    Then, after determining that no damage had been done to the bike, he gave Amil a small cloth to dab at his wounds.
  31. expansive
    of behavior that is impressive and ambitious in scope
    He decided to sketch a picture—large, detailed, and expansive. It showed the shop, the shopkeeper, and the bike. He drew the items in the shop windows. He carefully outlined the shopkeeper’s glasses and made little lines for the tiny hairs in his mustache.
  32. assume
    take to be the case or to be true
    When Papa came home, Kazi told him what had happened in hushed tones. Or at least that’s what Amil assumed they were talking about.
  33. explicitly
    in a clearly expressed manner
    Amil hadn’t thought that this was a possibility, even after Nisha suggested it. But now that Papa was explicitly saying they couldn’t, he felt the familiar desire to push against him.
  34. ghee
    clarified butter used in Indian cookery
    There was a big jar of ghee on the counter, yogurt and milk in the icebox.
  35. wring
    twist and compress, as if in pain or anguish
    “What kind of trouble?” Amil asked. He glanced at her hands in her lap. She started to wring them together, twisting and turning her fingers.
Created on Tue Aug 27 09:33:13 EDT 2024 (updated Tue Aug 27 12:29:38 EDT 2024)

Sign up now (it’s free!)

Whether you’re a teacher or a learner, Vocabulary.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.