Unaccustomed Earth 6

Kaushik's story continues, how he is at home with his father, step mother Chitra, and two younger step sisters Rupa and Piu. He is not super welcoming to the new family members because he believes, "My presence was proof that my mother had once existed, just as they represented the physical legacy of their dead father" (282). He ends up leaving in haste, after he catches Rupa and Piu looking through old pictures of his mother. He travels alone, and likes it. "No one in the world knew where I was, no one had the ability to reach me. It was like being dead, my escape allowing me to taste that tremendous power my mother possessed forever" (290). Then comes the story of Hema all grown up, and how she is about to marry Navin, a nice guy; too nice. She is in Rome, on vacation, and will soon be leaving to marry Navin. All of the sudden, unexpectedly, Hema and Kaushik meet once again at a mutual friends' apartment for dinner. They hit it off again and immediately become attracted to each other. However, they each had to leave at the end of the month. They spent all of their remaining time in Rome together, and before they had to leave Kaushik asked Hema to come with him. She politely refused, saying that she couldn't let down Navin and others. He got really upset, and they parted ways. Once they were officially seperate, they couldn't stop thinking of each other. At the end of the book, Hema found out that Kaushik was dead. This was a really sad book, because every story had a sad ending. It was like Lahiri took all bad problems in the world and devised them into short stories that compiled into a book. Overall I liked the book because it made me appreciate and value things that I have in my life that aren't troubled like some of these stories turned out to be.

Unaccustomed Earth 5

Now in the book, Lahiri is telling the story of two very close families. She first tells it of the point of view of the only girl of one family; and how these families' relationships affect her. The next chapter is about the other family's boy all grown up in college, and life after their families grew apart from each other. Hema's family was average class, and lived in Massachusetts. Kaushik's family was best friend's with Hema's family, but moved back to India for awhile. They came back suddenly, asking if they could stay with Hema's family for a little while. Something seemed different about Kaushik's mother. "There were complaints about how your mother did not help clean up after dinner, how she went to bed whenever it suited her and slept close to lunchtime" (245). One day Hema and Kauhshik were in the woods together when Kaushik told Hema that his mother was dying of cancer. Soon after that, Kaushik's family found a new house, and started to grow apart from Hema's family. In Kaushik's story, he is telling it from his point of view grown up about how much he misses his mother. Throughout the book, I have seen common similarities in all of the stories; all of the characters are Bengali and how Lahiri seems to characterize that, "She told me that she had slept in the same bed as her parents until the day she was married and that was perfectly normal" (229). In each of the stories there is some hard ship that the main characters have to overcome, and they all have to deal with trusting other family members. Usually the relationships between parents and children are not the best.

Unaccustomed Earth 4

Sudha's story ended badly. Rahul wrote her a letter telling Sudha he was clean and that he wanted to come visit her and her husband and her new baby Neel in London. She agreed, and he came. He seemed different; very sober, and considerate like he used to be. Her trust for him was on very thin ice, but one night he told her that her and Roger needed a night to themselves, and that he would babysit. Sudha and Roger came home to Neel alone in the bathtub where he could have drowned, and then walked into the study with Rahul passed out and a glass of alcohol beside him. The next morning, Sudha told Rahul he had to go. She started to cry, and after he left, "..thinking of the husband who no longer trusted her, of the son whose cry now interrupted her, of the fledgling family that had cracked open that morning, as typical and as terrifying as any other" (173). Next comes the story of the beautiful Sang, who lives with two other roomates in an apartment. Everyday suitors call asking for her hand in marriage but she politely refuses them. Her roomate Paul says, "You're like Penelope" (176). !From the Odyssey!; since Sang always turns the large amount of suitors down. Sang has a boyfriend who is not really social with her roomates, he just comes and goes when he pleases. One night when Sang is out, a woman calls the apartment crying. She says that she is having a relationship with Sang's boyfriend Farouk. Sang does not believe Paul at first, but then Paul gets the woman back on the phone so Sang can hear what she said. Sang goes to Farouks place, makes a scene, breaks up with him, and then fleds to another country. A lot of these stories are upsetting, and I hope that one will come and be SOMEWHAT happy.

Unaccustomed Earth 3

Megan and Amit's story ended, however with Megan angry at Amit. Throughout the course of Pam's wedding night, Amit had consumed a lot of alcohol. He was sitting at the dinner table discussing with another woman the details of Amit and Megan's marriage after they had kids. Amit replied, "Actually, it was after the second one that our marriage sort of - dissappeared" (113). The woman got angry at him and left him in haste, so he decided to go back to the hotel alone to call the girls. He ended up falling asleep and Megan got very worried when he did not return. They looked all over for him when someone finally found him sleeping in the hotel room. When he woke up the next morning she was very angry at him, and it seemed that Amit was right, that their marriage had dissappeared. A new story started up; a girl by the name of Sudha, her age advancing as the story went on, with a younger brother of about 3 years. She introduced him to alcohol when she was in college, and he had become hooked on it ever since. As they grew up, she began to find out that he was developing a drinking problem. After being admitted to college, Sudha's brother Rahul, started going downhill, skipping and failing classes. When Sudha tried to intervene, Rahul would just shut her out. Eventually he dropped out of school and his life went down the tubes; living at home and working at a laundromat. Sudha's life had just begun, she went over to study in London and fell in love with a man whom she proceeded to marry. However, she did not let him in on a lot of stuff. "And so she did not tell Roger about Rahul's drinking, about his arrest, about the fact that she had not talked to her brother in months" (150). Sudha kept many things inside, especially the fact that she had always been very protective of her brother. That is one of the themes that these stories is that the main characters always seem to keep everything inside and have a hard time expressing their true feelings to others.

Unaccustomed Earth 2

Lahiri finished Ruma's story, or so I think. She ended with flashbacks of Ruma's life, when her mother was alive and when Ruma was in highschool. There was a man, Pranab Kaku, who was also another Bengali which was rare in America, so they stuck together. Ruma believed her mother was in love with him because he made her happier than her father ever had. Lahiri described the love symptoms well, when Ruma's mother found out that Pranab Kaku was going to marry another woman, Ruma says, "The following day I say the teacup Pranab Kaku had used all this time as an ashtray in the kitchen garbage can, in pieces, and three Band-Aids taped to my mother's hand" (71). In the end, Pranab later divorces the American woman for yet another, just as Ruma's mother had predicted. Lahiri ends the story there, leaving you wanting more, and wondering if she will carry it on later in the book. Next, another story of a young married couple Megan and Amit. They are on a vacation for one of Amit's friends in college wedding. Pam, who is Amit later reveals that he was in love with for some period of time during college. They did kiss each other once in college, but then Pam shyed away from him, and that was the end of their physical relationship. They remained good friends, but ONLY friends, and went their seperate ways after college. At the wedding, Amit commented, "To this day she was the most beautiful woman he had ever known" (103). This supports the theme that not everyone gets what they want, just like in Much Ado About Nothing, how Don John tries so hard to screw everything up, but in the end he still does not get everything he wants. I can't wait to read on and hear other stories throughout the book.

Unaccustomed Earth 1

I have chosen to read Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri for my outside reading book. Starting to read, it jumps straight into the life of Ruma, who is trying to balance her life; with a husband who is hardly ever home, a 3 year old child, and one more on the way. They moved to Seattle, where Ruma knows no one and feels alone because her husband is always away at work. Ruma's mother passed away about a year ago, and only has her quiet, awkward father left. He is usually away on foreign trips, but decided to come visit. The visit was very good for all of them, it gave Ruma a break, because her father would play with her son, Akash, and he would also tend around the house.
One thing I noticed while I was reading however, is how much the characters had changed due to Ruma's mother's death. Ruma notes it too, "Though it upset her to admit it, if anything, he seemed happier now; her mother's death had lightened him, the opposite of what it had done to her" (33). Throughout the beginning of the book, Ruma talked about how much she missed her mother, and how she didn't think that it even affected her father, how he never expressed his grief for her loss. Ruma seems confused and depressed at the same time, and doesn't know how to deal with it. She asks her father to stay awhile longer, which I think would be good for them. Unfortuanatley, he does not want to, and leaves. I hope Ruma gets everything figured out with her life and am anxious to see what will happen between her and her father.

Reading Lolita in Tehran 6

It took a long time to finish the book, but in the end it was worth it. I didn't like it at the beginning, but towards the end, all of the lessons and things that affected her life really made me think about how much easier life is in America. It seems unfair that women in Iran have to go through life nervous that someone will arrest them because their fingernails are too long, or a couple of strands of hair are peeking out of their veil. It wasn't only the women that had a tough time, Azar went to a concert that was highly controlled by the Islamic Republic. "Only they weren't allowed to sing; they could only play their instruments. Nor could they demonstrate any enthusiasm for what they were doing: to show emotion would be un-Islamic" (300). Things like this frustrated Azar, and even me, in the fact that she lived in a completely controlled life. Nothing would be of value if everything is to be controlled like this. I would go crazy in a society like this. In the end, Azar leaves Iran with her family to find a better place in America. In the end she expressed more of her dislike towards Iran, thinking about some of the situations she was in would make her throw up. "I can't live like this anymore. Every time something like this happened, I, like many others, would think of leaving, of going to a place where everyday life was not such a battleground" (313). Once she leaves, most of her students in her secret class leave too. I found out that Nassrin actually didn't die, she just left before the class pretty much split up. Most of them still keep in touch today. I liked this book because it showed me how special of a bond some can make in the toughest of times. I recommend this book, although it starts off boring, it's worth it in the end.

Reading Lolita in Tehran 5

I am currently reading further and further into Azar Nafisi's mixed up life. The revolution is starting to get more and more dangerous and there are more bombings. She says she was not afraid for most of the time, but some bombs definitely scared her, especially the ones that hit close. She went back to teaching at another University after being convinced by her "magician" which is a character I don't really understand but he gives her advice. She likes it and continues describing many works of fiction that have presented themselves in her life.
The themes that are present in the book right now are to have no fear and to hold onto what you believe in. Like I said earlier, Tehran was getting much more dangerous and violent due to the revolution going on between different political groups.
"Attention, attention! The siren you hear is the danger signal. Red
alert! Leave at once and repair to your shelters!" I wonder at what
point in my life, and after how many years, the echo of the red siren-
like a schreeching violin that plays mercilessly all over one's body-
would cease in my mind. (185).
This really hit home for me because usually I'm not just casually walking home from school when a siren goes off telling me to hurry up and get home so I won't get hit by a bomb from a war that i'm not even fighting in. The revolution took a big toll on everyone living in Tehran at the present time. But that was because many people fought for what they believed in. "I remember one day when my leftist students had canceled classes, protesting the fresh murder of three revolutionaries, I was walking downstairs when they caught up with me" (95). There was always propaganda everywhere around the University and there were many arguments held on it's grounds. Some people that Azar taught at the University were murdered because of what they believed in. I can't wait to finish the book I am finally starting to like it because now there is SOME conflict!

Reading Lolita in Tehran 4

Wow, my book is finally starting to get more interesting! Instead of just talking about the way she lived her life through books, she started commenting on the outside world and what was going on in society. She was a professor at the university in Tehran while political groups were the main focus. There were arguments and fights every day, depending on what group you belonged to. It was very hard for her to go through these things, because as the groups became more violent and threatening, rules changed for women such as that it was mandatory to wear headresses. People would even "cancel" classes to protest something that their group did not believe in (224). Life at the university was very chaotic, and eventually she did not agree with some of the rules being put in place that she just stopped coming to teach so they expelled her.

"After each revolution several thousands of the corrupt elements are executed in public and burned and the story is over. They are not allowed to publish newspapers" (235). This time that she was describing and living in seems unreal to me. She goes through her day as if it is normal; people running around with guns ready to release bullets at the sound of disagreement. This situation right now is somewhat like America's involvement right now in Iraq. I don't know very much about our involvement in Iraq except for the fact that the Iraqis do not like our being there. That was the same with the Iranians in the time of America's involvement there. I really enjoy reading this right now because she is describing all of the passionate people about their political group and what they did about their dislikes on what was happening in society.