Jhumpa Lahiri herself is the “illness interpreter” in her moving collection of short stories, which lays bare the universal characteristics of loneliness and isolation. His enlightening experiences in Calcutta allowed the Indian-American author to write from the perspective of seemingly dissimilar characters, most of whom are plagued by the emotional confusion of an outsider, resulting from geographic displacement, migration, abandonment family or lack of communication. They range from a displaced stair sweeper and a grief-stricken couple to an eleven-year-old boy in the care of a house-sick Indian wife. Imbued with explicit details of Indian and American cultures, the stories speak with universal articulation and empathy to anyone who has ever felt alienated. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The “migrant experience,” responsible for evoking feelings of isolation around the world, affects all of Lahiri's characters personally or indirectly. Holisticly, the anthology gives voice to the severe repercussions of the Indian diaspora. Focusing on Boori Ma, a seemingly insignificant street cleaner, Lahiri argues that feelings of isolation are universal, regardless of social status, ethnicity, or age. Her “deportation to Calcutta after Partition” shapes Boori Ma's desperate fate. As a result she is “separated from a husband, 4 daughters, a two-story brick house” and a community of people who make her feel at home. Despite initial appreciation from residents in the lower-class building that she unofficially cares for and voluntarily sweeps, she is still treated like an outsider. “Knowing not to sit on furniture, he instead crouches in doorways and hallways and watches gestures and manners in the same way a person tends to watch traffic in a foreign city.” This state of discouragement is aggravated when Boori Ma is reported for the theft of the building's new water basin and "thrown" out, homeless and alone, on the street. Although Calcutta becomes Boori Ma's new home politically, she is banished again, this time for allegedly neglecting her duties as "A True Durwan". Demonstrating that geographic displacement is not the only condition for exile, Lahiri ultimately enunciates the universal nature of isolation. Sen's addresses isolated immigrants around the world through the distressing depiction of a woman expected to assimilate into a new culture. Mrs. Sen is unable to separate herself from her Indian ways and accept that, although “everything is there,” India is no longer her geographic “home.” Mrs. Sen's solitary life in America intensifies her desire for face-to-face communication with her family, which is inferred from the comfort she seeks in "airograms" from them and in a tape of their voices. The imminent danger of Mrs. Sen's stubborn attachment to India is symbolized by the knife she holds possessively for everyone. This danger emerges when Mrs. Sen's frustration with her inability to assimilate – symbolized by her inability to drive – culminates in her losing “control of the steering wheel” and crashing the car. Lahiri, however, argues that Mrs. Sen chooses a secluded life and that there is a possibility of her assimilation into America. The violent “wind, so strong that [she has] to go back,” indicates the difficulties that come with adjusting to America, but Mrs. Sen ultimately “screams” with joy, “laughing,” indicating that a different attitude would have allowed to enjoy his new surroundings..