A Real Durwan Themes

Jhumpa Lahiri’s “A Real Durwan” captures a snapshot of life in a small Bengali apartment building. Boori Ma, a 64-year-old woman with no other options, works and lives in the building as a housekeeper and unofficial durwan, or “doorkeeper.” She never officially applied for the position, but rather assumed the role years prior. Throughout the story, Boori Ma’s past gradually emerges as she recounts her past life to the building’s residents, detailing the…

Overwhelmed by the deep and all-consuming losses that she’s experienced throughout her life, Boori Ma lives squarely in the past, before the Partition of India and Pakistan left her destitute as a refugee. In contrast, the building’s residents, armed with a little more money and marginally better social standing than the poor doorkeeper, live in the present and the future. Instead of lamenting over their pasts, the residents focus on how they can better their…