Ruma's Story

I first read Jhumpa Lahiri some two years ago, though her first collection of short stories that won the covetous Pulitzer Prize, 'Interpreter of Maladies' was published well over a decade ago. Her charming writing did contain a great luring effect to trap the readers. I am fascinated with her style of writing and i have enjoyed almost all of the stories in that collection. Most, in fact, all of them featured Bengali protagonists. I remember a story in which the main character, a plump woman of thirty comes to stay in an apartment and she does not find any real human to care her. Her intention is to get married and eventually engender children. She is one of those people that we come across in our daily life whom we detest to move with and we do not deign to accept their existence. In an another story a couple who lives in the US does sort out their strained relationship through the grid transformation work of the electricity department. As they sit in darkness at night, nothing else to do in power failure they are reminded of their life immediately after their marriage. A week of grid rectification augurs well in transforming their lives. In another of the stories, a woman who is in love with a married man thinks twice and finally snaps her ties with after visiting the house of another friend who has been ditched by her husband and moving with the young boy of hers.

The attraction to read Lahiri lingered afterwards and i read her much acclaimed novel, 'The Namesake', late after being it was made into a film by Mira Nair. Fortunately i had not seen the film before i read the novel. It was published in 2003 and the film adaptation came in 2007. It discusses the generation gap between the settlers and those who are born in alien soil. Nikoloi Gogol, the namesake of the famous Russian writer was born in the US and does not cling on to the customs and traditions of Bengalis, quite naturally. On the whole it is more less a comment on the inherent liking to go scot-free and freak out on the part of the parents getting reflected in their wards as the wards live in a different and conducive atmosphere to execute their wishes. I am reminded of a Tamil Novel by Sivasankari. The name is 'Paalangal' (Bridges). In it she juxtaposes the lives of three different women who represent the thirties, sixties and the eighties respectively. The novelist does not comment on the actions of the women and just details their lives.


Lahiri's latest is 'Unaccustomed Earth', which is also the title of the first of the stories, a set of short stories, that she is good at writing rather than a big story of more than two-hundred pages. The first is a big story of Ruma, a law professional who lives in Seattle with her husband Adam, a Hedge Fund Manager. The story begins with the description of the European tours that her father, a seventy year old, retired chemical factory employee and a widower undertakes to enjoy himself. He does not communicate to her daughter the place of his stay in Europe, but occasionally sends 'Tourist Post Cards' indicating glimpses of his experience. Ruma is the elder of the two children born to the Bengali Couple who migrated to Pennsylvania from Calcutta. Romi, her brother now lives in New Zealand with his wife. Ruma married Adam, an American (a White) four years ago and is now expecting her second child. Akash, the first one is three years old. Rumi yearns for a companionship that she believes her mother's sudden demise has taken a toll on her. The American does not mind her father to be with her. However the father is in no interest to be part of any family now and he is in good health to take care of himself and has made surprising decisions after his wife's death to go on European tours, to have sold his house without informing anyone.

Rumi is of the opinion that her father never appreciated her mother's work who was a traditional house-wife and a good cook. She wanted to visit Europe which she had flown over many a time on her way to Calcutta. He stood impervious to all her wishes and it was Rumi who arranged for trip to Europe. Unfortunately she died all of sudden, not bearing the anaphylactic drug injected to perform gall bladder operation. Her father now has a new Bengali friend, an old lady in her early sixties, who loved a young man in Calcutta, married and lost him in an accident two years later. She came to the USA and became a professor and never married afterwards and lived all alone. In this context the father visits the new, splurging house of Rumi in Seattle. His stay there for a week kindles the feeling in Rumi of having a great protector. He builds her a garden and plays with his grandchild and wants her to take up her profession once again as he is always afraid of the American marriage being flaccid. He does not want to discuss his new friend whom he became close with in his trips. He writes a post card to her and puts it into the Seattle Map Book and the boy takes it out and plants it in his garden. The father does not stay after his scheduled visit and Rumi comes to know of his new companion only after he has left, through the un-posted letter. Rumi is reminded of herself and her brother when they were young, how they wanted to be free and not wanted their parents to intrude. Now, she needs to be with him. She thinks that her mother would have done in case of her being a widow. In the end, she realises her father's intentions and posts the letter to the address. A fine denouement that clearly portrays the planes of every character. A much matured writing by Lahiri is seen in her latest production.