The Management of Grief

“The Management of Grief” is a short story by Bharati Mukherjee. It was published in 1988 as a part of her collection entitled The Middleman and Other Stories. It also appeared in The Best American Short Stories of 1989 and in The Best American Short Stories of the Eighties.

“The Management of Grief” is narrated from the perspective of Shaila Bhave, a middle-aged Indian widow and an immigrant to Canada. She has recently lost her husband Vikram and her two sons Vinod and Mithun in a plane crash, thought to be the result of a Sikh terrorist attack. The story opens in Bhave’s house in Toronto, now filled with her neighbors and fellow mourners. They have just heard about the plane crash; Bhave has been given Valium to manage her shock, and she feels numb but not calm. She tolerates her well-meaning neighbors and commiserates with her friend and neighbor Kusum, who has lost most of her family in the crash. Only her wayward daughter Pam is left, and Kusum is unable to hide her disappointment in having lost her better-behaved daughter.

Bhave is approached by Judith Templeton, a young Canadian government official, to act as a liaison and translator for her group of mourners.