Immigrant Experience and Mental Conflict in Jhumpa Lahiri's " Once in a Lifetime"

The degree of acculturation is higher among thesecond generation immigrants than that of the firstgeneration. Sometimes the discovery of the history, geography, custom, rites and rituals of their parental homeland causes a kind of bewilderment, amazement and wonder among the later generations. This is what reflected in Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth. The Story “ Once in a Lifetime “ tells the interaction between two Indian immigrant families from the point of view of a thirteen year old girl Hema. Hama’s family consisting of her father her mother and herself another family Kaushik’s family consisting of his father, his mother and himself. As in first paragraph of the story Lahiri writes :“ Your parents had decided to leave Cambridge not for Atlanta or Arizona as some other Bengali had but to move all the way back to India abandoning the struggle that my parents and their friends had embarked upon.” (2008: 223)This is not to be Kaushik’s family returns to the US. Since Kaushik’s father has not acquired a house before returning to the US, Kaushik and his parents have to put up with Hema’s family. This is welcomed as a gesture of hospitality and love, a theme that runs through the story and provides a structural cushion to the mental conflict that is ultimately portrayed in the character of Kaushik’s mother. Indeed Lahiri’s study of two, unequal families in this story provides a depth for the rethinking of the post colonoial pension in the lives of individuals. The contrasts soon get externalised in Lahiri’s skilful charactersation of Kaushik’s family in its second immigration to the US. By the way, the reason for the second coming to the US seems scandalous. When it comes to know Perulmashi is suffering from cancer their is a mental conflict.