Pen-Ultimate

Jhumpa Lahiri’s story A Real Durwan is centered around a woman named Boori Ma. A prevalent theme in this short story is a feeling of displacement or of not-belonging. Boori Ma has a constant feeling that she does not entirely belong anywhere, from where exactly we do not know. It is clear, however, that she is a refugee. This means that she was forced from whatever home and life that had before the story begins. She deals with this feeling by telling stories to the tenants of the apartment building that works at. These stories are always changing and always seem to be embellished, therefore, the tenants do not necessarily believe them to be truthful, and she never cares whether they believe her of not. They still listen though, and care for Boori Ma.

“So she garbled facts. She contradicted herself. She embellished almost everything. But her rants were so persuasive, her fretting so vivid, that it was not easy to dismiss her.”

– Boori Ma, Jhumpa Lahiri

She never does feel entirely welcome in the apartments though. She always feels a sense of distance between herself and the other tenants.  This is made clear when she states that “she knows not to sit on the furniture so instead she crouches”.  The easy relationship between herself and the other tenants’ changes though, when the apartments are ransacked while she is there. She, of course, was not at fault, but the tenants blame her and throw her out. This causes her to be displaced once again, having the story both begin and end in the same manner.

This short story is can be incredibly helpful to future writers. It is important that all writers have a broad knowledge of other cultures and ways of life. This is a wonderful story to use to learn about the history and culture of India. This is an especially important work to read if you are thinking of being a travel writer. It is important to have a well-rounded knowledge of cultures and the stories that come out of them when being a travel writer or anything of the sort. Of course, it’s not only writers who need to have this knowledge. Teachers also need to know this information and the best ways to teach them to others. For this piece, I would suggest having students do a creative writing assignment on what they believe Boori Ma’s past was truly like before she ended up at that apartment complex, while incorporating an element of popular culture somehow. For example, they could have Boori Ma remain the same character, but they could have her past be set in some place like the Kardashian household. This assignment can be as outlandish as the student would like but it, of course, must contain an essence of the culture and style that the original story had.