Penn State Deluge - Vol. 2 No. 1 - Spring 2004

Eating is universal, a necessity of life to which all people can relate. Lahiri's emphasis on food enhances the physical qualities of her characters. In "When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine," Lilia describes Mr. Pirzada through colorful culinary adjectives. Mr. Pirzada arrives daily in "ensembles of plums, olives, and chocolate browns" (Lahiri 27). His mole is shaped "like a flattened raisin in the very center of his left cheek" (28). In "A Real Durwan" Lahiri describes Boori Ma in a similar fashion. Sixty-four years old, Boori Ma is the sweeper of the stairwell with "hair in a knot no larger than a walnut" and a voice "brittle with sorrows, as tart as curds, and shrill enough to grate meat from a coconut" (70).

In addition to these physical characteristics, readers get a sense of character traits through food descriptions. Lahiri conveys a sense of Boori Ma's relationship with her neighbors through the social context of food. Her fellow residents view Boori Ma as harmless despite her exaggerated tales and eccentric ways—"from time to time she [is] handed a glass of tea, the cracker tin [is] passed in her direction, and she help[s] children shoot chips across the carom board" (76). Likewise, in "Interpreter of Maladies" Mrs. Das's actions concerning food clearly reveal her character. She buys puffed rice with peanuts and chili peppers at a food stand but does not think to offer any to her husband or three young children; unsurprisingly, Mr. Kapasi finds it hard to believe that Mr. and Mrs. Das are "regularly responsible for anything other than themselves" (49). The deliberate manner in which Mrs. Das hoards her food paints an unmistakable picture of her self-centeredness. In this way, the universal context of eating allows the reader to visually see Lahiri's characters.

Food as a Reality Check

"There is a lot more juice in grapefruit than meets the eye."

- Author Unknown

Lahiri also uses food as an important time marker. Meals commemorate important dates for her characters although the dates may fade in importance over time. In "The Third and Final Continent" cornflakes and milk mark the very first meal of the narrator in America. Sanjeev and Twinkle first met at a birthday party where they are "seated side by side at a round table with a revolving platter of spareribs and egg rolls and chicken wings" (143). This first dinner is particularly memorable for Twinkle as she confesses to Sanjeev later that she "was charmed by the way Sanjeev had dutifully refilled her teacup during their conversation" (143). As for Shukumar and Shoba, Shukumar recalls their first meals in the kitchen where they "would just reach for each other foolishly, more eager to make love than to eat" (10). For these two couples, whose relationships hang precariously over strife and divorce, food offers at least some fond memories of happier times past.

In the same way that certain meals are commemorated, however, others are as easily forgotten. For example, despite the careful dates that Shoba puts on her recipes documenting the first time they ate that particular dish together, Shukumar has "no memory of eating those meals, and yet there they [are], recorded in her neat proofreader's hand" (7). Likewise, Lilia becomes accustomed to Mr. Pirzada's presence at dinner every evening; however, she has no recollection of his first visit, or his second or third visit for that matter. She does not even remember his last visit. He exits her life seamlessly after dining with her family for six months. Ironically, the specificity of certain meals is lost on Lilia, whose relationship with Mr. Pirzada does not sour, unlike the characters mentioned above who vividly recall certain meals from the earlier stages of their failing relationships. Nevertheless, Lilia's inability to recall a particular meal does not diminish the importance of her time with Mr. Pirzada. Thus, Lahiri's seemingly arbitrary assignment of memories to meals underscores the fact that attaching a date and label to a meal does not validate that the meal occurred nor does it validate a meal's significance.

[ Next >> ]

[ Contents | Absract | I | II | III | IV | V | VI | Works Cited | Appendix ]

Deluge Links