Sunday, October 7, 2012
When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine
“Lilia has plenty to learn at school,” my mother said. “We live here now, she was born here.” She seemed genuinely proud of the fact, as if it were a reflection of my character. In her estimation, I knew, I was assured a safe life, an easy life, a fine education, every opportunity. I would never have to eat rationed food, or obey curfews, or watch riots from my rooftop, or hide neighbors in water tanks to prevent them from being shot, as she and my father had. “Imagine having to place her in a decent school. Imagine her having to read during power failures by the light of kerosene lamps. Imagine the pressures, the tutors, the constant exams.” She ran a hand through her hair, bobbed to a suitable length for her part-time job as a bank teller. “How can you possibly expect her to know about Partition? Put those nuts away.”
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As the story tells us at the beginning, the story sets in the autumn of 1971, and Lilia was just a 10-year-old Indian girl, so we can conclude that her parents are immigrants who moved from India to the U.S. and might went through a hard time in India before. Therefore, through this quote, we can see that Lilia's parents had told her about the hard time they went through before, and her mom felt proud that they escaped and moved to the U.S, where they could live in peace, without life threatening, and Lilia, their children, could learn and grow in such good condition that she expected her to have. However, her dad thought she was just a child, and she wouldn't be able to understand the hard time that Lilia's parents had gone through and all the thing that Lilia's mom had told her.
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