If I were teaching Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel, The Namesake, I’d use these two passages to ask about their perceptions of immigrant life:

“For being a foreigner, Ashima is beginning to realize, is a sort of lifelong pregnancy — a perpetual wait, a constant burden, a continuous feeling out of sorts. It is an ongoing responsibility, a parenthesis in what had once been ordinary life, only to discover that previous life had vanished, replaced by something more complicated and demanding. Like pregnancy, being a foreigner, Ashima believes, is something that elicits the same curiosity from strangers, the same combination of pity and respect.” (pp.49-50)

In describing the preparation for Gogol’s birthday:

“As usual, his mother cooks for days beforehand, cramming the refrigerator with stacks of foil-covered trays. She makes sure to prepare his favorite things: lamb curry with lots of potatoes, lucchis, thick channa dal with swollen brown raisins, pineapple chutney, sandeshes molded out of saffron-tinted ricotta cheese. All this is less stressful to her than the task of feeding a handful of American children, half of whom always claim they are allergic to milk, all of whom refuse to eat the crusts of their bread.”

Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake (Perfection Learning, 2004).

My brother and my sister-in-law are very generous. They’re awesome.

One thing I admire about my sister in law and something I want to thank her for is her unrelenting desire to create memories for her child, and, by extension, my children. Always thinking and planning, she has made holiday after holiday memorable for my kids.

These memories matter. We’re West Philly folks — possessions aren’t exactly central to our lives — but CC has always pushed for our kids to be together, for them to do and experience things, for them to create memories they’ll always have.

Thanks for another great holiday!