Rice                                 -Jhumpa Lahiri



 

In her essay, “Rice,” Jhumpa Lahiri describes her father’s behaviour and his everyday routine from morning to night. Lahiri shows her admiration for her beloved when she explains all about her dad and his way of making pulao.

Lahiri explains the way her dad makes the pulao in every detail. Even knowing all the ingredents her dad’s pulao, Lahiri will not consider making it. The pulao was such a demanding dish that every person than just your average family celebration.

Lahiri describes the differences when her son and daughter celebrated their first annaprasan with the same pulao her dad makes. Lahiri has such an admiration for her dad’s way of always keeping a positive attitude. She learned how to respect and admire her dad’s decision and the passion he had towards making his favourite dish.

This story is titled Rice, but upon reading it you can immediately see from the beginning that the author, Jhumpa Lahiri, is talking about her father and his morning routine, giving us detail that prove he is a methodical man.

In the beginning of her essay, Lahiri talks about how her father is a methodical man. She tells that he has been doing the same job at library for almost thirty nine year. Her father was famous for something especial. He had earned a reputation for the Andaj- the Bengali word for the estimate. Her father sounded not only like a methodical man, but traditional as well. A man who wants to keep his tradition alive that is why he wanted to protect the tradition of serving pulao during the special occasions. The pulao for him was the identity marker, that everyone recognized and remembered him for.

The pulao is a special kind of rice that only her father can make and only makes it for the special occasions. Many times throughout the story Lahiri hints that the pulao is not just a simple dish, but something more, it has become an identity for her father and maybe even her family. The story itself also gives the reader a little insight on Bengali culture and traditions, but the author explains the cultural terms she uses, and at no point will the reader ever be lost because of a lack of prior knowledge.

Through this essay the writer wants to share information on her culture. She provide insight in to an important occasion in Bengali culture called annaprasan, which is a rite of passage in which Bengali children are given solid food for the first time. The author also tries to spread the importance of traditions. She states that she would never dare try to ever attempt to make her father’s pulao because it is his own recipe and it has never been recorded. By doing this she really shows the importance of tradition such as the making of the pulao as something scared to her Indian culture and tradition. Later in the end, when technology has overwhelmed people’s lives, her father can still make pulao using microwave and still serve pulao for one hundred people.

One can assume that making this dish for such a large amount of people in a microwave can be long, hard, and aggravating but her father does it anyway. This really shows how special traditions because no matter how annoying or difficult this process may be, her father still does it without hesitation or annoyance because he will be able to carry on the tradition of providing pulao for his grandchild’s annaprasan. The father seems almost thankful that he is able to make this dish somehow when he states that he doesn’t mind making the pulao this way because it is a big microwave.

Finally, the author tries to show the importance of the family. She shows how important family is when she describe how dedicated her father is to providing pulao for almost every occasion that the finally celebrates. It really shows how dedicated he is to his family and the events that occur in their lives. The father is extremely dedicated to his family and shows it especially when he doesn’t even hesitate to prepare dish for one hundred people in a microwave for his grandchild’s annaprasan. He wants to provide something for his grandchild and would do nothing to do anything to do it even if it does mean going through a long and annoying process to make a dish. The author really shows the importance of the family and how much family cares and will be there for you no matter what. The author does show how much her father cares for his family in this story.

When you talk about someone close to you in such detailed it shows the love and admiration one has for that certain individual. And here Lahiri accomplies in showing her love and respect for her father by describing how dedicated he is towards the family.

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