But even if her country has been ripped apart, Nisha still believes in the possibility of putting herself back together. The journey is long, difficult, and dangerous, and after losing her mother as a baby, Nisha can't imagine losing her homeland, too. When Papa decides it's too dangerous to stay in what is now Pakistan, Nisha and her family become refugees and embark first by train but later on foot to reach her new home. Half-Muslim, half-Hindu twelve-year-old Nisha doesn't know where she belongs, or what her country is anymore. The divide has created much tension between Hindus and Muslims, and hundreds of thousands are killed crossing borders. It's 1947, and India, newly independent of British rule, has been separated into two countries: Pakistan and India. The carvings are a permanent way to mark what is his, a way of proving he’d been there.In the vein of Inside Out and Back Again and The War That Saved My Life comes a poignant, personal, and hopeful tale of India's partition, and of one girl's journey to find a new home in a divided country

His family is being forced from their home to make way for another family in subtle protest, Amil carves pictures into the walls of their garden shed. Amil also uses his art to leave proof of his existence. When Papa insists he bring a book on their journey to Jodhpur instead of his drawings, Amil burns his own art in protest. As the tension of the narrative builds, Amil uses his art to exert control.

It is the tool he uses it to taunt unkind boys at school and, likewise, ingratiate himself to Chitra, his favorite girl. Amil’s art is indicative of his free-spirited self-possession. The latter does not help Amil to read, but it does enhance his artistic abilities. He presents dyslexic tendencies in his struggles to read and in his sense of how objects, even letters, exist in space. Amil perceives the world differently and can illustrate what he sees using charcoal and paper. Amil, Nisha’s twin brother, is the character most immediately associated with art.

Art is prevalent throughout The Night Diary and takes on different meanings depending on the character with which it is associated.

The night diary veera hiranandani