Purab Aur Paschim Themes

When first read by the reader many different things could be going through their minds, one assumptions could be that the “Indians” that the author is

As a first generation Indian-American, I am no stranger to being a part of a distinct community while observing two unique cultures. Traveling to India exposed me to a dynamic population with rich diversity comprising of numerous languages and differing religions. Though these individuals may have had differing customs from their neighbors, there were similar ambitions to conquer grinding poverty. This poverty can be clearly noticed by seeing citizens sleeping on floors of a railway station, or the lack of air conditioning in searing hot weather. The frailty and mortality of the human condition was starkly visible in India. As a fellow human, I was humbled not only by the lack of privilege and opportunity of many citizens, but also by their

In her essay “My Two Lives,” Jhumpa Lahiri, an Indian American, explains the balance between the identities of the two countries inside her heart, as well as her psychological struggle between her bicultural identities. She describes herself as an Indian-American because she moved with her family from India to the United States when she was very young. However, confused with her identity through her growth, she feels that she doesn’t belong to either of the two countries because of its completely different cultures. When she is at home, she deals with her parents in an Indian way, which is strange compared to the American way that she come across outside. She says that she has a distinctive identity in spite of her Indian appearance

When most of us think of the great Indians of the last century, we think of a thin, well-defined figure standing stern and serious. When we think of a modern Indian, we

o. Now today, India is made up of multiple identities, but “if your allegiance is to India, then you are Indian”( Wood, 245).

Victor thinks being an Indian man is to always be reminded of the presences of the power that the white man has over you. “Crazy mirrors, I thought as the security guard fell from the tunnel, climbed to his feet, and pulled his bully club from his belt,” (58). Victor

In the short story collection, Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri, immigrants and memories have a very particular relationship because their memories surrounding a large part of their identities are derivative of diaspora. Somehow they are able to have this double consciousnesses, the memories and thoughts as immigrants, and the memories and thoughts as Americans. The time spent in their native country or in their host country cannot be replaced, even if the experiences immigrants encounter are negative. Even if the immigrant misses what they have lost migrating to another country, what is lost cannot come back. There is a constant battle between how much and how little memories do the Indian-American characters in the book have of being either Indian or American to be “Indian-American.”

The dominant idiom of Indian writing today is firmly entrenched in pain, anxiety of displacement, nostalgia, yearning to belong to roots, and so on. Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things and Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss are two such novels that explore the tragedy of man on several levels using different perspectives. Both the novels are about averted culture-clash tragedies, homogeneity vs. heterogeneity, and about Indian sensibilities.

“Holy Cow, An Indian Adventure,” by Sarah MacDonald, is a book written describing Sarah’s experience living in India. She goes through many tough times and endures life changing experiences that eventually make her the person she is meant to be. In this book Sarah relates India to western perspective several times. India and the United States do have similarities, India and the United States both are run by a Democracy, they both have very strong cast systems; both have their own “Hollywood” films, and both places have many religions mixed within.

Throughout the years many historians have compilated and examined why Indian people were so desperate to gain back their independence from the British Empire during their rule over India, from 1612 to 1947. The reasoning can most definitely be found as the British discriminated against Indian people as they believe that they were inferior; it is no surprise that Indian people fought so hard for their independence. Throughout the British Raj, they placed and put forward unbelievably racist acts and laws which discriminated against Indian people. Which of course led to Indians to rebel against the British rule and which the British reacted with causing massacres. Explaining the nationalistic many India’s felt during the British Raj.

Bharati Mukherjee discus’s the loss of cultural identity while being a visible minority by using the setting, characters and the plot of her short story “Hindus”. The author uses the plot for the main character to meet new people and have new experiences that leads to the ending of her better understanding herself. The characters the main character meets along the way in the short story written by Mukerjee are very important in the end in finding her identity. She also uses the setting to show the differences of culture and living standards of those living in India versus living in the Americas. The author used the setting, characters and the plot to describe and demonstrate the cultural and identity loss that may happen when one moves away from their country and their

In first few scenes of the film, the man who befriended Ashoke Ganguli in the train said words that marked in Ashoke’s mind after the dreadful accident. The man asked Ashoke if he ever had the chance to see the world, referring to England and America. He also mentioned his travel in England and pertained to it as dreamlike experience, away from the unclean landscape of India. Then, he advised Ashoke that he must go out of Indian and conquer the world while he’s still young. After his survival from the accident, Ashoke went to America, following the man’s advice. The scene in the train affirms to the binary schema between Indians and Americans, their perception of higher value of “the one” over “the other”.

3. Choose one or two themes from the following list and show how Spiegelman conveyed this in Maus: Loneliness; Discrimination; Abuse of Power; Loss of Innocence, Guilt, Survival.

Through her tasteful selection of contemporary Indian influenced prose pieces, Jhumpa Lahiri traces the unique journey of Indian families established in America. Focusing on the intergenerational aspect of traditional households, Lahiri conveys the emotional rollercoaster that accompanies a person who is branded as a foreigner. In America, there exists a common misconception that immigrants who arrive in this country fully assimilate or seek to assimilate as time progresses. The category I chose was "The Dot of true Happiness." The dot which signifies the bindi, a traditional red mark worn by Indian people, is the source of true happiness among these immigrants.

E.M. Forster’s classic novel “A Passage to India” tells the story of a young doctor, Dr. Aziz, and his interactions with the British citizens who are residing in India during the time of the British Raj. Throughout the novel, the reader gets many different viewpoints on the people and the culture of India during this point in history. The reader sees through the eyes of the Indian people primarily through the character of Dr. Aziz, and the perceptions of the British through the characters of Mr. Fielding, Adela Quested, and Mrs. Moore. Through the different characters, and their differing viewpoints, the reader can see that Forster was creating a work that expressed a criticism that he held of the behavior of the British towards their Indian subjects.