- Unaccustomed Earth
“He was gone for two, three, sometimes four weeks at a time. When he was away, Ruma did not hear from him.” (Page 3)
I wonder why he never even called to check in or let his daughter know how he was doing.
“Even before MapQuest existed, he knew the exact distance from their house to his office, and to the supermarket where her parents shopped for food and to the homes of their friends.” (Page 13)
How did he know all these distances and times without some guidance, unless he went there so often he just knew how long it took?
It sounds like throughout this story Ruma is talking about all of the things that she has stopped doing as an adult that were taught to her as a child.
“Ten years ago her mother had done everything in her power to talk Ruma out of marrying Adam, saying that he would divorce her, that in the end he would want an American girl.” (Page 26)
Is Bengal culture similar to the Asian culture we have been looking at in regards to what happens during marriage?
I wonder why Rumas father was so apprehensive to move in with her.
- Hell-Heaven
“The answer to his question was clear, given that my mother was wearing the red and white bangles unique to Bengali women.” (Page 61)
I didn’t know that Bengal women wore bangles to signify they were married.
Pranab Chakraborty does sound like a hippie based off the description given to him in the reading.
“In the summer Pranab Kaku bought a navy-blue Volkswagen Beetle and began to take my mother and me for drives through Boston and Cambridge, and soon outside the city, flying down the highway.” (Page 66)
This doesn’t sound like it should be allowed to happen in their culture because earlier in the chapter it said those two couldn’t be alone together, so how is this okay to be happening?
“When he wasn’t around, my mother complained about Deborah’s visits, about having to make food less spicy, even though Deborah said she liked spicy food, and feeling embarrassed to put a fired fish head in the dal.” (Page 68)
I don’t understand why the mother would be unhappy, unless she was jealous of Deborah.
“By the summer, there was a diamond on Deborah’s left hand, something my mother had never been given.” (Page 70)
I think the mother is upset because Pranab Kaku is treating Deborah better than the father ever treated her.
- A Choice of Accommodations
It sounds like Amit holds a grudge against his parents for letting go of him and not going to his graduation.
Where is Langford located?
“These everyday rituals felt like a chore. He was uninspired to put on his suit and socialize with ghosts from his adolescence.” (Page 89)
Amit does not sound excited about going to this wedding.
I have never heard of a wedding happening inside a tent.
- Only Goodness
I predict that Rahul will become an alcoholic.
“During her visit, Sudha gave herself fully to her parents, watching Wimbledon with her father on television, helping her mother cook and order new blinds for the bedrooms. She was always in the house, while Rahul drifted in and out without explanation.” (Page 139)
It sounds like they are going in different directions and Rahul is starting to drift away from his family.
“After her parents left she grew busy with her classes and with the new friends she made who came from all over the world, joining them to study and sightsee and visit pubs.” (Page 144)
It sounds fun having people from all over the world in one place to experience a lot of different culture.
It sounds like Rahul is starting to spiral and not caring about it.
- Nobody’s Business
“Every so often a man called for Sang, wanting to marry her. Sang usually didn’t know these men.” (Page 174)
That must have gotten old and annoying after a while.
“Sometimes Sang would take notes during these conversations, on the message pad kept next to the phone.” (Page 175)
At least she was polite and taking notes about her possible suiters.
“It was a violation of her privacy, an insult to her adulthood.” (Page 175)
Why didn’t she just change phone numbers?
I think Paul likes Sang.
Farouk sounds like a controlling boyfriend.
Farouk cheated on Sang with Deirdre.
- Once in a Lifetime
I wonder who the narrator is addressing in the beginning of the story.
“When she noticed a young Bengali women in a sari, wearing vermilion in her hair.” (Page 224)
What is a sari?
This person seems close to the narrator, or at least the narrator’s family.
The whole story is told from the narrator’s perspective.
- Year’s End
I wonder why the father didn’t tell his son about his wedding.
“I didn’t know which was worse – the idea of my father’s remarrying for love, or of his actively seeking out a stranger for companionship.” (Page 255)
It sounds like his father remarried for companionship and to have someone around so as not to be lonely.
“He had wasted no time giving away her clothes, her handbags, her boxes of cosmetics and colognes.” (Page 256)
I wonder why he was in such a rush to get rid of all of her belongings.
“When my father had tried to remove the sings of my mother from the house I blamed him for being excessive, but now I blamed him for not having done enough.” (Page 279)
It sounds like he wishes his father would have gotten rid of everything pertaining to his mother.
- Going Ashore
“Before that Hema had been to Rome only once, traveling with a girlfriend after graduating from Bryn Mawr.” (Page 296)
Where is Bryn Mawr?
“She refused to think of it as an arranged marriage, but knew in her heart that that was what it was. Though she’d met Navin before her parents, they had found him for her.” (Page 297)
This sounds like an arranged marriage to me.
“They turned a corner to see a young man lying on the street. He’d been shot in the head, blood pouring like a slowly widening river away from his skull, but not a speck of blood or even dirt, Kaushik still remembered staining his tan shirt or trousers.” (Page 304)
What a graphic image this conjures up in the mind.
It sounds like he was a forensic photographer taking pictures of people’s mangled bodies and sending those pictures to be identified.