Hello and welcome to the Discourse. ‘This Blessed House’ is the seventh short story by Jhumpa Lahiri from her short story collection Interpreter of Maladies published in 1999. The short-story collection won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2000. The story is about a newly married couple, explaining the importance of compromises in a healthy married life and highlighting that without mutual give-and-take, a relationship is unlikely to be very happy. The story also delves into the themes of social expectations and self-identity, and the need for assimilation in a multicultural set-up.
Characters of ‘This Blessed House’:
Sanjeev is the main character of the story, he is a successful American Indian, an engineering major at MIT, and then moved from Boston to Hartford, Connecticut to work at a firm. He is expecting the VP position in the firm. He is a meticulous, grown-up, uptight, and conscientious person. He is not a religious person but he values his Indian roots, Indian culture, and heritage. He is meticulously organized and methodical in his work and life. He is self-conscious and puts significant effort into creating and maintaining his image for others. His family pressurizes him for marriage and he agrees. His mother suggests a girl to him and he begins a long-distance courtship with her soon, within two months, he marries that girl named Twinkle. She is just opposite to Sanjeev. Twinkle is a 27-year-old graduate student at Stanford who's writing her master's thesis on an Irish poet. Her formal name is Tamina but she prefers being called by her nickname Twinkle. Her name nickname comes from the nursery rhyme ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ and suits her childlike intensely curious and playful nature. She is extroverted, adventurous, and endearing to others. Recently, she broke up with an American actor and then she was introduced to Sanjeev by her family. Unlike Sanjeev, she is more open to American culture and religious patterns.
Summary of This Blessed House:
Sanjeev bought a house in Connecticut before leaving for India for his marriage with Twinkle and determined that he and his bride should live there forever. He liked the house and was impressed by the wainscoting, the solarium, the brass finishes, and other details. He imagined moving into the house with his wife after his marriage.
As they settle in, they find Christian icons everywhere in the house. Sanjeev feels those leftover artifacts are mere trash and wishes to dispose of them. Sanjeev is concerned about how the pieces will reflect on him. He doesn’t want others to think they are Christian. He sees them as trivial, profane, and silly objects. However, Twinkle is excited about these items and feels they are a kind of treasure hunt. The very first thing they find out is a porcelain effigy of Jesus kept beside a bottle of malt vinegar left in the kitchen by the previous owner. Sanjeev asks Twinkle to throw both items away but Twinkle insists on keeping them safe on the mantle. Twinkle continues to look for more and finds many other snow globes, statues, and 3-D posters. Sanjeev fails to understand why Twinkle is so excited about them. He has arranged for a party to introduce his wife to his co-workers but he worries what they would think of him when they notice the Christian artifacts on the mantle. Twinkle says that he is thinking too much about nothing.
Twinkle continues to look for other similar artifacts hidden around the house while Sanjeev wonders why she is killing time, why couldn’t she unpack her bags, dust and clean the house, and arrange the things properly as they should be. By the end of the week, Twinkle finds another impressive poster of crying Jesus and declares that she will hang the poster on the wall of the living hall. Sanjeev protests and Twinkle says that he is a killjoy who worries too much about what others think. Anyhow, she agrees to keep the poster in her study room behind the door. Sanjeev continues unpacking his things while he listens to Mahler’s fifth symphony. He reads the liner notes on the record and learns that the fifth symphony was Mahler’s version of a marriage proposal. Sanjeev finds it romantic but Twinkle, who is cleaning and flushing the toilet objects to it and yells that the music puts her to sleep. Sanjeev puts off the music and remembers how he met Twinkle. They only met four months prior, at a birthday party. Her mother introduced him to her. She had just been dumped by an American actor; he was well-off but single and lonely. And their parents got them to see an Indian matchmaker who convinced them to marry. They began an intense long-distance relationship with Twinkle after that night. They married in India shortly thereafter and Twinkle moved to Connecticut – where she knew no one. While Sanjeev is meticulous, he finds Twinkle lazy and can’t get her butt off the couch and clean up around the house. Moreover, she isn’t even devoted to her post-graduation thesis that she is supposed to submit that year.
Sanjeev wonders if she can get much of anything done. Sanjeev wonders if he really loves Twinkle who is now his wife. He never experienced love as he had never been in a relationship before. However, he knows for certain that love is not what he had in his old life – full of takeout meals and classical CDs arriving by mail. Now, his life is different, changed, and a bit disturbed, he wonders if it is love. Twinkle continues to pester him with her petty childlike activities. She does things as if she doesn’t care for anything. Sanjeev found her calling long-distance during peak hours just to gossip with her friend. He noticed that she hardly cooked anything. Often, she buys pre-made stuff and adds her own spin. She also makes Sanjeev feel stupid because she's so bright, curious, and breezy about everything.
A week before the housewarming party, Twinkle and Sanjeev decide to clean the lawn filled with fallen leaves. Twinkle notices something across the yard, hidden beneath the leaves and she screams. Sanjeev runs over to her, thinking she has found a dead animal or snake. However, it is a bust of the Virgin Mary. Twinkle is on the seventh cloud as she bursts with delight and insists that they should keep the bust of the Virgin Mary on the property as a decorative piece. But Sanjeev doesn’t agree. He is worried about what the neighbors will think, as they are Hindu and not Christian. Twinkle argues with him but Sanjeev declares that he is going to throw out the statue. She rises up and marches away in a towel. She tells Sanjeev she hates him, then collapses in his arms in tears. Sanjeev relents and agrees to keep the statue up in an alcove out of sight from the main road but still visible to all who visit their home. Sanjeev wonders again if his decision to marry Twinkle was right. He remembers the way Twinkle acted on a night soon after their marriage. They were in NYC; Twinkle was drunk and dancing with him in the streets. He often finds himself uncomfortable with Twinkle's free-wheeling ways.
The night of the housewarming party, Twinkle avoids removing the objects from the mantle and Sanjeev hopes his guests – mostly colleagues – will notice the pillars of the house more. Sanjeev does most of the preparations for the party. As usual, Twinkle orders fish stew for the party and then spins off the dish. She improvises the recipe, not bothering to write down how she has put the stew together. She smokes cigarettes and chats on the phone while casually adding to her stew some malt vinegar she has found around the house. When Sanjeev tastes the dish, he finds the half-bought/half-prepared fish stew excellent. He asks how Twinkle prepared it but Twinkle doesn’t remember much. She didn’t note down the ingredients she added. Sanjeev feels that she is a natural-born chef even if she is completely lazy about cooking.
Sanjeev wonders about the guests he has invited, most of whom he's not close to and can't really connect with. None of the guests has ever met Twinkle either. When the guests arrive, Sanjeev introduces Twinkle to them by her formal name Tamina. However, Twinkle soon corrects him and says that she is better known as Twinkle. Sanjeev notices that she soon becomes the limelight of the party, charming all the guests. One of Sanjeev's male friends even calls her "wow." The guests notice the antique pieces on the mantle and ask if Sanjeev is a Christian. Sanjeev denies and says that he is a Hindu but there are many Christians in India. Sanjeev notices that it is not as big of an issue as it appeared to him. His friends are impressed by Twinkle, but he still feels a bit lost. He steals a moment alone in the kitchen. Replenishing the champagne from the cellar, he hears Twinkle explain the figurines and how each day is like a treasure hunt. When the guests learn of the unexpected discovery of Christian artifacts, they form a search party, eventually reaching the attic, where a new discovery is made: a solid silver bust of Christ, weighing a good 30 pounds.
Meanwhile, Sanjeev feels alone and lonely in his own home. He fantasizes about removing the ladder and truly having the house to himself. He thinks of sweeping the figurines off of the mantle and into the trash in silence. In fact, he's regretting the fact that he never accepted one of the other potential brides his mother suggested (via airmailed photos), women who could cook, clean, and sew. He rather chose to meet Twinkle, and now he is married to her. He decides to go to the bedroom as he feels the party is over for him. He notices Twinkle’s shoes outside the doorway. He never liked her heels but now, her shoes offer him a tender feeling. He imagines Twinkle putting them on and rushing everywhere to tend to their guests. It reminds him of the anticipation he would feel before one of their long talks when she was still living in Stanford.
Twinkle comes down with the silver bust of Christ and requests Sanjeev to let her put the bust on the mantle for the night. She promises she will shift the bust to her study room the very next morning. Instead of arguing with her, Sanjeev smiles and helps her placing the heavy silver bust carefully on the mantle. He joins the party again. He realizes that the bust will never go to Twinkle’s study room and she will continue to explain why the bust is on the mantle to the guests who will keep coming, in their many years together.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of Indian English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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