Outside the orphanage¹, the next day, they ran out of chairs. A lot of people had to stand to watch the opening ceremony. It was a windy day, and I sat behind Baba on the little podium just outside the main entrance of the new building. Baba was wearing a green suit and a caracul hat. Midway through the speech, the wind knocked his hat off and everyone laughed. He motioned to me to hold his hat for him and I was glad to, because then everyone would see that he was my father, my Baba. He turned back to the microphone and said he hoped the building was sturdier than his hat, and everyone laughed again. When Baba ended his speech, people stood up and cheered. They clapped for a long time. Afterward², people shook his hand. Some of them tousled my hair and shook my hand too. I was so proud of Baba, of us.

But despite Baba's successes, people were always doubting him. They told Baba that running a business wasn't in his blood and he should study law like his father. So Baba proved them all wrong by not only running his own business but becoming one of the richest merchants in Kabul. Baba and Rahim Khan built a wildly successful carpet-exporting Business, two pharmacies³, and a restaurant.

When people scoffed⁴ that Baba would never marry well--after all, he was not of royal blood--he wedded⁵ my mother, Sofia Akrami, a highly educated woman universally regarded as one of Kabul's most respected, beautiful, and virtuous⁶ ladies. And not only did she teach classic Farsi literature at the university she was a descendant of the royal family, a fact that my father playfully rubbed in the skeptics faces by referring to her as "my princess."

With me as the glaring exception, my father molded the world around him to his liking⁷. The problem, of course, was that Baba saw the world in black and white. And he got to decide what was black and what was white. You can't love a person who lives that way without fearing him too. Maybe even hating him a little.

翌日，在恤孤院外面，椅子没有来客多。很多人只好站着观看落成庆典。那天刮风，新建筑的大门外面搭了个礼台，爸爸坐在上面，我坐在他后面。爸爸身穿绿色套装，头戴羔羊皮帽。演讲当中，风把他的帽子吹落，人们开怀大笑。他示意我替他把帽子捡回来，我很高兴，因为当时人人可以看到他是我的父亲，我的爸爸。他转过身，对着麦克风说，他希望这座房子比他的皮帽来得牢靠，人们又大笑起来。爸爸演讲结束的时候，大家站起来，欢呼致意，掌声经久不息。接着，来宾与他握手。有些人摸摸我的头发，也跟我握手。我为爸爸自豪，为我们骄傲。

虽说爸爸事业兴旺，人们总是说三道四。他们说爸爸没有经商的天分，应该像爷爷那样专研法律。所以爸爸证明他们统统错了：他不仅经营着自己的生意，还成了喀布尔屈指可数的巨贾。爸爸和拉辛汗创办了一家日进斗金的地毯出口公司，两家药房，还有一家餐厅。

当时人们嘲弄爸爸，说他不可能有桩好婚事--毕竟他没有皇族血统，他娶了我妈妈，索菲亚·阿卡拉米。妈妈受过良好教育，无论人品还是外貌，都被公认是喀布尔数得上的淑女。她在大学教授古典法尔西语Farsi，现代波斯语。文学，祖上是皇亲贵胄。这让爸爸十分高兴，总在那些对他有所怀疑的人面前称呼她"我的公主"。

父亲随心所欲地打造他身边的世界，除了我这个明显的例外。当然，问题在于，爸爸眼里的世界只有黑和白。至于什么是黑，什么是白，全然由他说了算。他就是这么一个人，你若爱他，也必定会怕他，甚或对他有些恨意。