how I discovered the wonder that is Jhumpa Lahiri

Work has been a little stressful, just a tad bit. Only because we’ve been procrastinating for 6 months before the actual work went ‘live.’ So, yeah, let me rephrase that: the workload is starting to grow heavy.

But still there are days when there are no tickets to work on, so for entertainment –in a form not so colorful, or interactive, that might be too conspicuous for the bosses–I revisited DailyLit.

That day, it was offering a free Jhumpa Lahiri short story. I was clueless, and didn’t know the prestige attached to that name. I simply read the Preview (first installment) and then I got hooked. Unlike the other classic materials on the site where you can read the work in its entirety, this piece had to be sent to you in installments, via email. (Probabaly because it’s a new upload) So I clicked the Subscribe button.

In a certain degree, Lahiri writes like Oates. But her power lies not so much in the manipulation of words to evoke an emotion, it’s in the straightforward telling of the tale.

After reading Hell-Heaven, I had Veto download The Namesake –Lahiri’s novel-turned-film. It was just as beautiful. I bet the book was much better:

I leave you with: