I have chosen to respond to the writing piece entitled Indian Takeout by Jhumpa Lahiri. The story is about a family that brought the edible goods and kitchen appliances to Rhode Island from its visits to Calcutta. While reading, I have highlighted three quotes that express the main ideas of the story. The are found below.
‘Trips to Calcutta let my parents eat again, eat the food of their childhood, the food they had been deprived of as adults.’
‘It was enough, that first lonely evening, not only to satisfy our hunger but to make Calcutta seem not so very far away.’
‘The world, the culinary world in particular, has shrunk considerably.’
The writer cleverly describes the points in detailed manner to make the audience experience a vicarious thrill. The first and foremost sense that stood out while I read the story was my sense of taste. For an example, when the narrator’s father suck ‘the pits lovingly smooth’ I could ‘taste’ the softness and juiciness of the yellow mangoes. Besides that, when the narrator’s mother ‘breakfasted shamelessly on sticky orange sweets called jelebis’ which were ‘easy to succumb’, I could feel the irresistible sweetness of the jelebis.
Apart from that, my sense of sight was alive when the author described the father as a man who ‘insisted on packing the goods himself, with the aura of a man possessed: bare chested, seated cross-legged on the floor, determined’, I could imagine a man with masculine mental and physical attributes. As the reading progress, ‘a bumpy, bright green bitter melon’ was mentioned. It made me to imagine the exact features of the melon.
At the end of the story, my sense of smell was active when I learned that the neglected food suitcase smelled of cumin.
A writing style the author used in the narration is diction. She had used a good selection of words to present quality, style and sound of the points in the piece. (http://www.answers.com/topic/rhetoric-and-figures-of-speech-related-word-list)
An example of diction can be seen in the second paragraph of the story that is quoted below. Here, the author described the characteristics of the suitcase that was used to store food.
‘Our treasure chest, something we called the Food Suitcase, was an elegant relic from the Fifties with white stitching and brass latches that fastened shut with satisfying clicks. The inside was lined in peach-colored satin, had shirred lingerie pockets on three sides and was large enough to house a wardrobe for a long journey. Leave it to my parents to convert a vintage portmanteau into a portable pantry. They bought it one Saturday morning at a yard sale in the neighborhood, and I think it's safe to say that it had never been to India before.’
Besides that, the author had described the irony of not using the ancient food processor despite the unapproved reactions rose from the transportation of it. The example is found below.
‘The most sensational gadget we ever transported was a sil-nora, an ancient food processor of sorts, which consists of a massive clublike pestle and a slab the size, shape and weight of a headstone. Bewildered relatives shook their heads, and airport workers in both hemispheres must have cursed us. For a while my mother actually used it, pounding garlic cloves by hand instead of pressing a button on the Osterizer. Then it turned into a decorative device, propped up on the kitchen counter. It's in the basement now.’
The author has shown another example of diction in the following paragraph.
‘In spite of everything we managed to haul back, the first meal we ate after returning from India was always a modest affair. My mother prepared the simplest of things: rice, some quartered potatoes, eggs if she was motivated, all boiled together in a single pot. That first meal was never an occasion to celebrate but rather to mourn, for the people and the city we had, once again, left behind. And so my mother made food to mirror our mood, food for the weary and melancholy. I remember thinking how strangely foreign our own kitchen felt that first night back, with its giant, matching appliances, water we could safely drink straight from the tap and rice which bore no stray stones.’
In paragraph found above, the author had described her family members' first meal upon their return to Rhode Island from their visit to India. It was not a joyous occasion for them.
Another writing style presented by the author is flashback. The whole story excluding the last paragraph is a flashback of the narrator’s past experience of transportation of food and some kitchen wares from India to Rhode Island.
From the content of the piece, I learnt that the food we are used to eat during the early of our life is the food that eventually becomes food that we yearn for when it is missing. We miss the taste, smell and texture of the food when we have no access to it. Even though the food might be available in foreign country we are living, it might not be the same due to the sentimental values share with the food. For example, Malaysians who like to eat traditional Malay sweet cakes or also known as kuih made from freshly squeezed coconut milk might not like to eat the kuih made from canned coconut milk found in United States. Another reason is the food might not be up to our expectations due to cultural assimilation. For example, Americans who love pizza with cheese and shredded chicken in United States might prefer not to eat the pizza with cheese and spicy, shredded chicken in India.
At the end of the story, I grasped the idea of globalization when the author described that ‘the culinary world in particular, has shrunk considerably’. At the past, people had very limited access to foreign food and groceries. However, nowadays, it is easier to eat food originated from foreign country compared to the past. For an instance, there are two Asian markets in West Ames, Iowa. So, people in Ames can buy groceries from there to try cooking Asian dishes. People in Ames have easy access to the considerable number of Chinese Restaurants in Ames as well. Due to globalization, food originated from overseas has become common for us.
The reading of the story did raise some questions to me. I wondered and still wondering how will be the taste of Moghlai parathasta. Besides that, can I, an international student tolerate the food in United States that differs greatly from Malaysia, my nation for a long term? Will I end up desperately craving for the food like fried noodles, char kuey tiaw and chicken sambal that taste exactly like Malaysian?
Overall, I enjoyed reading Indian Takeout. It gave me a good understanding of immigrants who miss the food of their origin.
