Unaccustomed Earth

A woman named Usha narrates this story. She opens by recalling Pranab Chakraboty, “[a] fellow Bengali from Calcutta who had washed up on the barren shores of [her] parents’ social life in the early seventies, when they lived in a rented apartment in Central Square and could number their acquaintances on one hand” (60). Because Usha had no true uncles in the United States, her parents instructed her to call the man Pranab Kaku. He, in turn addressed Usha’s father using the formal Shyamal Da, and Usha’s mother using the word Boudi, “which is how Bengalis are supposed to address an older brother’s wife” (60).

Pranab had spotted Usha and her mother, named Aparna, one day as they walked along Massachusetts Avenue, recognizing them as Bengalis immediately. Unbeknownst to them, he followed them for several blocks before finally asking Aparna if they were Bengali. Given Aparna’s red and white bangles, worn exclusively by Bengali married women, her Tangail sari, and the generous dusting of vermillion powder covering the center part of her hair, the answer was obvious. Too, he took note of the several safety pins that Aparna had pinned to her thinner gold bangles, which singularly called his own female family members in Calcutta to mind.