In this story set in rural Punjab, Rano's world is shattered when Tiloka, her husband, meets an untimely death and Rano is left with their children to fend for. The village intervenes and Rano is forced to agree to getting married to Mangal, her brother-in-law. This proposition is completely unacceptable for Rano, who had always treated Mangal like her son. At the same time, Mangal is in love with the young Salamat and the idea of marrying someone who had always been a motherly figure to him, infuriates Mangal. However, both Rano and Mangal ultimately succumb to societal pressure and enter into a wedlock. With time, Rano is faced with another tryst when her own daughter falls in love and has to be married off. A Sahitya Akademi Award winner, 'Ek Chadar Maili Si', originally written in Urdu, talks about the ups and down in the life of a woman who is forced to accept that every girl has one fate of being protected by a patriarch, every woman needs a symbolic 'chadar' to be sheltered under.
