There are some parallels between the novel and Sidhwa's own life. Similar to the main character Lenny, Sidhwa is Parsee, contracted polio as a child, grew up in Lahore, and was nine years old during the Partition of India.[1][2][3] Although she did not witness mob violence first hand, she heard mob chanting in the distance and saw a few corpses during the conflict.[2][4] Additionally, the scene in which Ayah's lover is found in the road reflects one of Sidhwa's real memories from the time:
I was actually walking to my private tutor, and there was this gunnysack lying by the roadside. The gardener, who was with me, just kicked the gunnysack, and a body spilled out, a dead body of a very good looking man.[2]
When the movie adaptation of the novel, Earth, was being filmed, the crew consulted Sidhwa's memory of the incident to recreate this scene.[4]
