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

In the same way that food can separate two different worlds, it can as profoundly unite, by serving as an important means of communication. For Mr. Pirzada, his daily ritual of bringing sweets for Lilia gives him a familial relationship he is unable to have with his own daughters. Giving Lilia the candies is a natural extension of his affection and he does not expect any thanks. In turn, Lilia treasures these gifts and hides them in a special keepsake box. She thoughtfully chews on them each night before bed as she prays for the safety of Mr. Pirzada's family. These candies connect her to Mr. Pirzada and it is as if touching a symbolic piece of him makes her prayers that much more powerful.

Holidays are another bridge between the two different worlds. Mr. Pirzada shares his first Halloween with Lilia's family and learns about the tradition of carving pumpkins and eating roasted pumpkin seeds. They celebrate this holiday even as they are watching the evening report about the situation in Dacca; while carving the design on Lilia's pumpkin, Mr. Pirzada's knife slips causing him to make a gash in the pumpkin when he becomes distracted by the news report that war between India and Pakistan is inevitable. Although Mr. Pirzada is mortified, Lilia's family quickly consoles him and "fixes" the pumpkin by transforming the gash into a large hole. Lilia had wanted a scary looking pumpkin; however, the "expression of placid astonishment, the eyebrows no longer fierce, floating in frozen surprise" seems more apt for the uncertain period that they are all experiencing (36). The basmati rice burlap sacks that Lilia and her friend use to go trick-or-treating also show small influences of Indian culture appearing in their new American customs. Finally, Mr. Pirzada's extreme concern for Lilia's going trick-or-treating without adult supervision is noteworthy. His concern for her is real; his concern is also concern for his own daughters transferred onto Lilia who has become a daughter of sorts.

In "Interpreter of Maladies," food plays a key role as both a conflict instigator and a peace maker. The puffed rice that Mrs. Das purchases from the men at the tea stalls symbolizes both her indifference to Indian culture as well as her indifference to her own family. She sits "slouched at one end of the back seat, not offering her puffed rice to anyone" (47). Although she hoards her food, she offers a piece of gum to Mr. Kapasi, showing her approval and interest through this gesture. The fact that she does not share her food with anyone clearly shows her self-absorbed nature and lack of maternal instinct. Appropriately, the monkeys who attacked her son are provoked by the puffed rice trail she leaves behind as she walks around the ruined Indian monuments. Just as she walks on the path oblivious to the world around her, she approaches her marriage in the same selfish manner, unaware and unconcerned with how her infidelity affects her marriage and the relationship with her children.

Food also serves as a mediator in this story. Ronny offers Bobby a fresh stick of gum after the monkey attack. Ronny and Bobby are young boys, not yet capable of mature, adult relationships; nevertheless, Ronny still reaches out to his brother and offers his sympathy in a way he knows how - through candy. He also wants to give the monkeys gum when he first sees them. In this way, food is his multi-purpose communicator that allows him to express interest, enjoyment, and condolences.

Food as a Marker of Cultural Differences

"The way you cut your meat reflects the way you live."

- Confucius

On another level, food underscores the vast cultural disparity between America and India. For example, Mr. Pirzada comes to America from a country that is on the precarious brink of war: a country where rationed food, curfews, and riots are the frightening norm. Even after Mr. Pirzada returns to his native Bangladesh, he returns to a country plagued by "unemployment and the threat of famine" (41). By contrast, Lilia's life in America is comfortable and safe. Lilia is unable to relate to the "unruly, sweltering world" she views on the television each evening from her spacious, bright living room. She knows how lucky she is that she "is assured a safe life, an easy life, a fine education, every opportunity" (26). Food is not a worry for Lilia and her family; indeed, while food is rationed in India, it is used for holidays in America. For Halloween, Lilia's mother buys a "ten-pound pumpkin, fat and round" for Lilia to carve (35). Mr. Pirzada is completely unaware of these American holiday traditions; needless to say, in Dacca, his people have more serious life-and-death matters to consider.

For Lilia, food distinguishes cultural difference. She examines the food Mr. Pirzada eats and the manner in which he eats in order to figure out why Mr. Pirzada is no longer considered Indian. Lilia admits, "It made no sense to me… [Mr. Pirzada and my parents] ate pickled mangoes with their meals, ate rice every night for supper with their hands. Like my parents, Mr. Pirzada…chewed fennel seeds after meals as a digestive, drank no alcohol, for dessert dipped austere biscuits into successive cups of tea" (25). In this case, food is the one medium through which Lilia knows how to analyze the differences between two cultures.

"Mrs. Sen's" further points out the separation between India and America. As an Indian immigrant who followed her husband to America, Mrs. Sen misses her homeland tremendously. She laments to Eliot about the dreadful silence of her apartment that is so different from her own bustling hometown. Her blade from India is the most prominent representation of her loneliness and the divide between American and Indian culture. This blade is supposedly the staple of every Indian home. Mrs. Sen tells Eliot, "Whenever there is a wedding in the family or a large celebration of any kind, my mother sends out word in the evening for all the neighborhood women to bring blades…, and then they sit in an enormous circle on the roof of our building, laughing and gossiping and slicing fifty kilos of vegetables through the night" (115). She is aware that the social importance of women getting together and sharing cooking experiences is absent from American social life. Coming from a culture where all one has to do is "raise your voice a bit, or express grief or joy of any kind, and one whole neighborhood and half of another has come to share the news," she worries that she could scream at the top of her lungs and no one would notice (116). Additionally, Mrs. Sen complains about the lack of fresh fish available in America despite their proximity to the ocean, something that she was accustomed to eating two or three times a day in India. Eliot's mother suggests that Mrs. Sen "try the supermarket" (123). Her suggestion points out a significant difference between American and Indian attitudes—Indians, it is implied, are more selective of their food, while Americans rely on supermarket availability to dictate their tastes and their meals.

Based on the differences between India and America, Lahiri presents America in a more negative light. Specifically, Lahiri describes the food of India as vibrant and diverse, in turn making American culture seem lifeless and drab. As mentioned in the section Food Preparation as a Meter of Change, the narrator from "The Third and Final Continent" adopts milk and cereal as his new dietary staple, a very bland, simple, and definitely "American" meal. In "Mrs. Sen's," Eliot enjoys a similarly bland American snack of crackers with peanut butter every day after school. When he goes home, he and his mother order a pizza for dinner—Eliot's mom does not cook. The lack of variety of American food is made clearer in comparison to the immense variety of colorful dishes that Lahiri describes throughout her short stories. Lilia's family and Mr. Pirzada feast on numerous Indian dishes that Lilia's mother prepares. One night she presents a "plate of mincemeat kebabs" (28); another night, she brings forth a "succession of dishes: lentils with fried onions, green beans with coconut, fish cooked with raisins in a yogurt sauce" (30). From a "stew with green beans and tinned sardines" that Mrs. Sen prepares and the bright, colored vegetables she uses for her Indian meals to Twinkle's tasty creation of "bright white cubes of fish, and flecks of parsley, and fresh tomatoes gleaming in the dark brown-red broth" the Indian dishes are clearly more appealing than the American dishes, suggesting Lahiri's partiality for India (144).

Furthermore, Lahiri's fondness for India is also apparent in her description of her female characters and their relationship to food. Lahiri characterizes the traditional Indian women, women who have either emigrated recently from India or have lived in America for many years and have adhered to Indian traditional gender roles, as having more successful, acceptable relationships. Specifically, Mala, Mrs. Sen, and Lilia's mother all fit in this category. Mala is a model wife, whose spotless home always "[smells] of steamed rice" (192) and "chicken curry made with fresh garlic and ginger" just in time for dinner (193). She also happens to be gentle and sensitive, with a "voice full of kindness" (195). Mrs. Sen, too, is a model wife. Like Mala, she has faithfully followed her husband to America in order for him to pursue a career in academia. Mrs. Sen is an excellent cook and very resourceful—she deliberates how to cut a single fish from the market in order to maximize the number of meals she can make from it. In addition to her culinary skill, she is responsible and family-oriented, making her better equipped to take care of Eliot than his mother. She is a perfect hostess to Eliot's mother, inviting her in and offering her delicious treats: "a glass of bright pink yogurt with rose syrup, breaded mincemeat with raisins, a bowl of semolina halvah" (118). Finally, Lilia's mother is a long-time resident of America; however, she adheres to the traditional Indian roles of wife and mother. She dutifully cooks Indian food for her family and Mr. Pirzada and is a caring, capable mother to Lilia.

On the other hand, Twinkle hates to cook Indian food. Her cooking consists of "preroasted chickens from the supermarket" for she hates "chopping garlic, and peeling garlic, and [can] not operate a blender" (143-4). Shoba stops cooking altogether once her marriage begins failing. Eliot's mother does not cook at all. Her dinner routine is to "pour herself a glass of wine and eat bread and cheese" before she eventually goes to the deck to smoke "leaving Eliot to wrap up the leftovers" (118). Lahiri suggests that her poor relationship with Eliot as well as with men (she is a single mom) is indirectly related to the fact that she does not cook, let alone cook Indian food. Food and the kitchen are a source of comfort and protection, and not surprisingly, the kitchens that are most inviting are those of the traditional women. The beach house where Eliot and his mother live is so cold that they have to "bring a portable heater along whenever they [move] from one room to another, and to seal the windows with plastic sheets and a hair drier" (114). By contrast, Mrs. Sen's apartment is always warm, "sometimes too warm; the radiators continuously [hiss] like a pressure cooker" (114). In the same way, the kitchen in Lilia's home is warm and inviting, with constant activity. Lilia's mother is constantly "at the stove, presiding over a skillet" busily cooking with the "fierce scrapes of her spatula" (25). The Americanized women may be more independent and worldly; however, it is the traditional Indian women who are capable of caring and protecting.

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

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