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.