Describe Haroun's childhood.

Haroun is an only child, a strange circumstance in a city where there are mostly big families. Even stranger are the Senguptas, the Khalifa’s upstairs neighbors, who have no children at all. Mrs. Sengupta often treats Haroun as if he were her own son. Sometimes Haroun likes this and sometimes he does not. Mr. Sengupta dislikes Haroun’s father and sometimes he launches into criticisms of Rashid, telling Haroun’s mother that Rashid has “his head stuck in the air and his feet off the ground. What are all these stories? Life is not a storybook or a joke shop...What’s the use of stories that aren’t even true?”

One day, Haroun returns from school in a downpour and sees Mrs. Sengupta standing upstairs crying. Inside his house, he finds his father crying as well and he learns that his mother has run off with Mr. Sengupta. In a fit of anger, Rashid breaks every clock in the house, stopping them at 11 o’clock sharp. The letter that Haroun’s mother leaves accuses Rashid of having no room for facts in his mind.