Birthdate: 11 July 1967

Birthplace: London, England

Hometown: Kingston, Rhode Island

- a daughter of Bengali Indian immigrants

father: worked as a librarian at the
University of Rhode Island
mother: taught her their Bengali heritage

- had moved from England to the U.S.A.

- had considered herself an American

Educational Attainment

South Kingstown High School

Barnard College
- B.A. English Literature
Boston University
- M.A. English
- M.A. Comparative Literature
- M.A. Creative Writing
- Ph.D. Renaissance Studies
Works
addresses sensitive dilemmas in the live of Bengali
Indian immigrants, disconnection between the first
and second generation of US immigrants

"When I first started writing I was not

conscious that my subject was the Indian-
American experience. What drew me to
my craft was the desire to force the two
worlds I occupied to mingle on the page
as I was not brave enough, or mature
enough, to allow in life."
Some Notable Works
Interpreter of Maladies (1999)
a collection of stories of Indian-American
experiences (Pulitzer Prize for fiction and PEN
award)

The Namesake (2003)

a novel, which later had a film adaptation,
about generational gap (first and second
generation immigrants)

Unaccustomed Earth (2008)

a collection of short stories (Pulitzer Prize)
(includes second and third generations)
Some Notable Works
Interpreter of Maladies (1999)
a collection of stories of Indian-American
experiences (Pulitzer Prize for fiction and PEN
award)

The Namesake (2003)

a novel, which later had a film adaptation,
about generational gap (first and second
generation immigrants)

Unaccustomed Earth (2008)

a collection of short stories (Pulitzer Prize)
(includes second and third generations)
Kaushik
- narrator
- 21 years old
- born in 1965 at Cambridge, Massachusetts
- 9 years old: went to Bombay, India
- 16 years old: went back to Cambridge, Massachusetts
after his mother got sick
- 18 years old: his mother died
- studied at Swarthmore; lived in a dorm
Kaushik’s Father
- 55 years old
- had his first job at Cambridge, Massachusetts
- first married in 1962 (arranged marriage)
- after wife got sick, he would arrive home with flowers,
and would go to work late
- wrote Bengali poems and read them to his wife
but stopped when she died
- married Chitra, whom he met for just a few weeks
and had only seen twice before their marriage
- reason for remarrying: he was tired of coming home to
an empty house
Kaushik’s Mother
- married in 1962 (arranged marriage) and
moved to Massachusetts
- would occasionally return to Calcutta to cheer up
her parents
- was fond of the ocean and swimming and
modern architecture
- died at the age of 42 because of cancer
- her ashes were tossed from a boat off the Gloucester coast
- her jewelries were distributed to the poor women in
Calcutta who had worked for their extended family
as ayahs or cooks or maids
Chitra
- 35 years old (20 years younger than her 2nd husband)
- lost her spouse to encephalitis two years before
­a schoolteacher
- traditional
- had two daughters: Rupa and Piu
- didn’t speak English well
- asked Kaushik to call her Mamoni
Chitra’s Daughters
Rupa
- 10 years old

Piu
- 7 years old
Kaushik’s Maternal Grandparents
- didn’t believe when their grandchild, Kaushik, and
his father told them that their daughter died
- they were still hoping that their daughter would come
back, boarding a plane once again
Jessica
- Kaushik’s girlfriend whom he met at Spanish class

Mrs. Gharibian
- middle-aged woman with short brown hair and
a soft Southern accent
- Kaushik’s mother’s nurse

Zarin
- family cook at Bombay
 Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
This was where the family of Kaushik moved after his mother got
sick. Before moving, they had been living in Bombay, India.

• Their house was a stark structure of concrete

and glass that Kaushik’s mother preferred
more than the shingled, shuttered homes
typical of the towns
• Modernist architecture, proximal to the
ocean, somewhat isolated, enormous, “more
befitting of an institution than a private home”
• Where the new wife of Kaushik’s father and
her children moved
 Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
It was set during the Christmas Season

• Probably in the 1980’s since Kaushik’s

parents married in 1962 and Kaushik is 21 in
the story.

• Jimi Hendrix, Paul Strand – icons who were

famous during Kaushik’s adolescent year;
cassettes were famous in the 1980’s; Family
Feud; Dunkin’ Donuts

• Winter
 Introduction
Point of Attack
Complication
Climax
Resolution
Characters Environment
Kaushik Father
Kaushik Chitra
Kaushik Stepsisters
THEME
“Not easy. It’s not easy for me.”
- Kaushik

“We are both

moving forward,
Kaushik.”
- DaD
 “Things were
different now, of course.”
-Kaushik

I don’t ask you to care for her,

even to like her. I only ask
that you understand
my decision.
-Dad
“I did not know how to respond…”

The steps are slippery…

Why is there no railing?
-Chitra

The knowledge of death seemed

present in both sisters – it was something
about the way they carried themselves,
something that had broken too soon and had
not mended, marking them in spite of
ADJUSTMENT their lightheartedness.
 “It would remain
between the three of
us, that in their
SILENCE they
continued both to
protect and to
punish me.”

SILENCE
 • DESCRIPTIVE
• USE OF PLAIN LANGUAGE
• AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL

Characters are often Indian immigrants

to America who must navigate between
the cultural values of their birthplace
and their adopted home
Graphic Credits…
http://www.simpsoncrazy.com