When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine

When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine, is one of nine short stories in Jhumpa Lahiris’ Interpreter of Maladies.  This story revolves around the experience of a young girl (Lilia) divided between two cultures.  However, Lilia has no clue of what her Indian culture is about or its history, which is what, brings her between the culture she was born in that the culture she was born into. When Lilia is first told by her dad that Mr. Pirzada is no longer considered Indian, she is curious as to why that is. She explains that how come a person who acts the same way, eats the same things, and says the same things as her and her parents are considered to be different. Her father then shows her a map points to where Mr. Pirzada is from and where they are from and says “As you see, Lilia, it is a different country, a different color”. (Lahiri, p. 26, 1999) After his talk with his daughter, Lilia’s father is bothered by the fact her daughter knows nothing about her culture and asks of her to watch the news with them every night in order for her to learn what the current situation of her parents’ home country. After watching the news for several days Lilia starts to notice the differences and her separation from her Indian culture. This is evident when she notes “No one at school talked about the war fallowed so faithfully in my living room.” (Lahiri, p. 32, 1999) Lilia also starts to notice the differences in school, when she is assigned a project on the American Revolution and was ordered to put a book about Asia back on the shelf, because it is not a part what they were studying.  Even at a friend’s house Lilia notice the differences when she calls her mom after a night of trick-or-treating: “When I replaced the phone on the receiver it occurred to me that the television wasn’t on at Dora’s house at all.” (Lahiri, p. 39, 1999) After all of her experiences it is evident that Lilia is placed between her Indian and American culture, because she lives and was born in America, but has parents that raise her with Indian beliefs and customs.