I couldn’t stand it, the stares and whispers of the women, down in the marketplace; the

loneliness of being without him. Compassion is one of the first four themes that Divakaruni’s “marriage accounts” is emphasizing throughout her stories. We notice how the Indian women and wives are more connected to their family and community. The marriage of an Indian woman is the matter of everyone around her. Her decisions throughout that marriage will affect her as well as her relationship with her family and friends. As Anju tells us in her story: “We keep in touch mostly through letters; international calls are too expensive.” This community-based compassion of the Indian women is challenged as they arrive in the United States. Our philosophy of dating, love and marriage has puzzled many couples as they build their families around this new culture. There is little or no community-based compassion in the United States for we care little about what people around us think about our families. As an Indian woman is found lonely in the United States, exposed to media, love and romances her idea of marriage becomes vulnerable to this new groove. To explore this new love, we noticed that many of the Indian students that came to US to study started dating behind their parents back. When it came down to telling the mother, many time the response would be “Who are you talking to, Ayah? What? How ca it be my daughter? I don’t have a daughter. Hang up right now.” The importance of keeping that compassionate relationship with the parents and friends is essential to the Indian-woman. We recognize this importance once we see the divorces and lives of the women that shifted to this new Companionate Marriage idea. Most of the women ended up unhappy, single mothers and in need of acceptance by their family. But there were no secrets in Calcutta.

I close my eyes and see the gray, gauze-like smoke drifting gently into the cavities inside me, taking over. Ashoo described herself as a divorced, single-mother with little reason to live when she decided that maybe the engine smoke of her car could suffocate her and take away her pains. Ashoo was having serious psychological breakdowns. The new culture, America has taking away everything that was important to her. In one word, she had been striped of her identity. Injustice is a central theme in Divakaruni’s stories as she tries to point out how gradually the identit

Some topics in this essay:
Mothers Day, American Companionate, Banerjee Divakaruni, Calcutta Integrity, Arranged Marriage, Elizabeth Elliot, Companionate Marriage, Chitra Divakaruni, Instead Divakaruni’s, indian women, Furthermore Indian, arranged marriage, companionate marriage, divakaruni’s “marriage accounts”, divakaruni’s “marriage, “marriage accounts”, type marriage, feelings emotions, purpose learning, community-based compassion, indian woman,