Although both would probably reject the idea, Parvez and Ali are too much alike temperamentally to be able to communicate well. At the same time, each is caught up in his own worldview and, because of the different ways they have experienced life, can't understand the choices of the other.

Parvez feels humiliated by the poverty he grew up with in Pakistan. He also found the way he was taught Islam oppressive and humiliating. A string was attached to his hair to wake him up if he drifted off while learning the Qu'ran. With such memories, he is glad to be in a country where he can earn a decent living, help his son get ahead, and enjoy the good things in life, even if they are forbidden by his religion. He has no sentimental attachment to Islam and is not a believer.

Ali, on the other hand, has grown up in England. The humiliation he experiences is not poverty or an oppressive religious climate, but the sense of being a second class citizen in the country he calls home. He also feels humiliated by his father's drinking and lifestyle. Having never lived in a Muslim country, he has an idealized view of Islam.

Although they grew up in the same house, the two men have experienced life differently. The story explores the effects of this generational difference and the barriers it creates. Both react in hurtful ways to the pain they have experienced: Ali through his cruelty to Bettina and Parvez by beating his son.

The communication fails to function between Ali and Parvez because their individual views of Islam are diametrically opposed, and neither is willing to compromise personal conviction for the sake of peace.

When Parvez finds out that Ali has been giving away or throwing away his belongings, he is particularly worried. He tries to talk to his son, but finds that Ali strongly resists his well-meaning solicitude. Parvez's own experience with religion was fraught with condemnation and pain; his own taxi friends have also observed the hypocrisy of local mullahs who indulged unnatural proclivities toward the boys and girls in their charge while proclaiming righteous living to everyone else.  It is clear that Parvez relishes living in England where he is free to live according to his best conscience. However, Ali having never experienced the pain of religious tyranny, wishes to live apart from what he considers the excesses and moral corruption of Western society.

What Parvez views as freedom Ali considers heresy. While Parvez considers himself a good man who deserves an occasional alcoholic drink, Ali is horrified by such decadent indulgence. Ali's 'aggressive confidence' is intimidating to his father, who thinks that his son has 'swallowed someone else's voice.' Indeed, Ali can't 'hear' his father's voice because other more eloquent 'voices' have supplanted Parvez's awkward and vague articulations about living a good life. Ali is simply not satisfied with Parvez's secular views; his thirst for meaning and purpose is at the crux of his decision to pursue a fairly radical interpretation of Islam. Also, Ali's uncharacteristic and blatant disrespect towards Pervez has blind-sided the older man. As it stands, communication does not function between Ali and Pervez because:

1)Neither party wants to compromise personal convictions.

2)Neither party is willing to respect open dialogue without recrimination.

3)At this point in time, neither party trusts the other.