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Parul/Kaushik’s Mother
Hema’s parents embody traditional Bengali values, placing a strong emphasis on family, education, and cultural identity. Though well-intentioned, their expectations for Hema create an environment that often feels restrictive, particularly as Hema strives for independence in her American life. They’re encouraging of Hema’s marriage to Navin, seeing him as a “suitable” match who shares their cultural background. Their presence in Hema’s life reflects the tension between tradition and assimilation that she struggles to reconcile.
Hema’s Parents Quotes in Unaccustomed Earth
The Unaccustomed Earth quotes below are all either spoken by Hema’s Parents or refer to Hema’s Parents. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
6. Hema and Kaushik: Once in a Lifetime
Quotes
“They should have known it’s impossible to go back,” they said to their friends, condemning your parents for having failed at both ends. We had stuck it out as immigrants while you had fled; had we been the ones to go back to India, my parents seemed to suggest, we would have stuck it out there as well.
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8. Hema and Kaushik: Going Ashore
Quotes
It was her inability, ultimately, to approach middle age without a husband, without children, with her parents living now on the other side of the world, and yet to own a home and shovel the driveway when it snowed and pay her mortgage bill when it came [...] to abide that life indefinitely that led her to Navin.
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It would be replaced tenfold in the course of her wedding. And yet she felt she had left a piece of her body behind. She had grown up hearing from her mother that losing gold was inauspicious, and as the plane began to climb, [...] a dark thought passed through her, that it would crash or be blasted apart in the sky.
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Hema’s Parents Quotes in Unaccustomed Earth
The Unaccustomed Earth quotes below are all either spoken by Hema’s Parents or refer to Hema’s Parents. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
6. Hema and Kaushik: Once in a Lifetime
Quotes
“They should have known it’s impossible to go back,” they said to their friends, condemning your parents for having failed at both ends. We had stuck it out as immigrants while you had fled; had we been the ones to go back to India, my parents seemed to suggest, we would have stuck it out there as well.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
8. Hema and Kaushik: Going Ashore
Quotes
It was her inability, ultimately, to approach middle age without a husband, without children, with her parents living now on the other side of the world, and yet to own a home and shovel the driveway when it snowed and pay her mortgage bill when it came [...] to abide that life indefinitely that led her to Navin.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
It would be replaced tenfold in the course of her wedding. And yet she felt she had left a piece of her body behind. She had grown up hearing from her mother that losing gold was inauspicious, and as the plane began to climb, [...] a dark thought passed through her, that it would crash or be blasted apart in the sky.
