Jhumpa Lahiri. I fell in love with her writings after I chanced upon her collection of short stories “The Interpreter of Maladies”. Have not read her “The Namesake” though saw the movie. Two great actors of our times,Irfaan Khan and Tabu played their parts wonderfully in that movie.

And I got her recently released book “Unaccustomed Earth” as a gift from my cousin.And came across the bookmark neatly tucked away in the book “ Never judge a book by its movie”,it said .How True!! Again, a movie should also not be judged by the book on which it is based. The two are two different genre and should be treated as such. What do you say?

Now back to my point of discussion.Unaccustomed Earth is again a collection of short stories,the book takes the name from the first story.This story ,which sets the pace for the rest of the stories is based on the lonely life of a widower,seen through the eyes of his daughter. Ruma,the daughter,is married to an American and has a son.Outwardly,she leads a contented life. But, keeps worrying about her father who now leads a life of a wanderer as he has plenty of free time in his hand. He comes to spend a few days with her and refuses to be a part of her family,once she broaches the subject.

Despite her efforts,father refuses to be a part of this extended family. After he leaves , she finds out he real reason. That there is a lady in her father’s life and for that she heaves a sigh of relief and is happy for her father.

And there is this story about the young man Pranab who falls and eventually gets married to an American lady ,much to the chagrin of the Bengali community living in Seattle. Despite all that his wife loves him truly and yet,after seventeen years of marriage it falls apart..Pranab eventually falling for a much married Bengali lady.

Almost all her short stories in this collection have the USA as the backdrop,with one Bengali lady/gentleman falling for an American and thereby arises the difficulties and subsequent adjustments in cross-cultural marriages.

There is Sang..short for Sangeeta,who has fallen for Farouk and stays with Paul and Heather as a housemate..clearly adored by Paul..who observes her very keenly through the highs and lows..of her relationship..

And there is Amit,who rediscovers his love for his american wife..in the reunion of classmates on the occasion of the marriage ceremony of the headmaster’s daughter.

May be due to the backdrop of all the short stories,I found some of them quite monotonous. Comparatively,”Interpreter of Maladies” was a much better collection of stories.

You cannot have much of a choice if you deal with lives of Indians in the USA and twists and turns it takes once they get involved with Americans..It is too limited a vision..