Response to "Once in a Lifetime"

This story is about a young girl's memories of a particular family, and how her own family reacted to the way they had changed in the seven years since they had seen them. The narrator seems to be critiquing the parents' judgment of the family. I think the point is that the narrator and her family were critical of this other family without fully understanding what they were going through, and they made assumptions about the choices they made.

One thing about this story that really caught my attention was that it is addressed to Kaushik, opening with "I had seen you before". The narrator doesn't seem aware of readers other than Kaushik, then. However, the story remains very intimate and personal, like reading a letter that was addressed to Kaushik but never meant to be sent. I liked that a lot.

The story seems to take a long time to arrive at its point. The first three pages recount the going-away party for this family, and then it dwells on the preparation for their return for a while. They finally arrive on the pg. 491, nine pages into the story. The story dwells a lot on Indian culture, which is very important to the story obviously, but some of the details having to do with that confused me. For instance, on pg. 484 I am not sure why the narrator is fretting about the seal of the textile company showing. Also, there is a lot of time spent on the coat that Hema inherited from Kaushik and how it caused her to hate him. I don't really understand why this is so important. I also don't understand why the information about Kevin McGrath disappearing on pg. 494 is there. I guess, these things distracted me because I thought they were going to be more significant than they were.

The ending was particularly effective, and it made certain things earlier in the story take on a new meaning. For instance, the title "once in a lifetime" and the appearance of this phrase on pg. 492 becomes much more powerful. Also, the Johnnie Walker and the cigarettes become more significant because they are no longer just symbols of American culture or indulgence. They become coping mechanisms. The parents guess that Dr. Choudhuri is indulging his wife as consolation for the move, but really it's because she is dying. Also, the scene where Parul buys bras becomes more significant since it is breast cancer that she is dying of. Anyway, all of these things were very artfully included in the story and became much more significant at its conclusion, which I really liked.