The Storyteller's Secret

Amisha goes into labor under a new moon. According to Hindu culture, a daughter born under the new moon is a curse and bad omen; the midwife helping to deliver Amisha’s daughter Lena (Jaya’s mother) says as much, but Amisha refuses to let such a claim hinder her love for her new child. In her daughter, Amisha recognizes Stephen. Deepak doesn’t consider that Amisha might have been unfaithful and only values Lena for her looks: “With her complexion, we will have suitors lined up at our door for her hand in marriage” (332). Immediately, Amisha insists that Lena must go to America when she is of marrying age. Eventually, Deepak promises that they will send Lena to America for marriage, and Amisha falls asleep with the knowledge that she has secured for her daughter the best future she could. Later, when Amisha explains this decision to Ravi, she insists that America “is a place where she can have a chance to be who she wants” (333). For her daughter, Amisha desires freedom, choice, and the ability to voice her ideas without fear of repression in a patriarchal society.