Bharati Mukherjee (1940-2017) Tribute List

Award-winning author Bharati Mukherjee died on January 28 from complications of rheumatoid arthritis and a stress-induced heart condition. She was 76 years old. Born in Calcutta, Mukherjee studied in India, England, and Switzerland, before earning a doctorate in America and teaching in both Montreal and Berkeley. This is why she believed that "the narrative of immigration is the epic narrative of this millennium." Here are words from her fictional texts that reflect the autobiographical statement.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. jeopardy
    a source of danger
    My fresh new citizenship is always in jeopardy.
    --from "The Middleman" in "The Middleman and Other Stories" (1988)
  2. displace
    cause to move or shift into a new position
    My voice has the effortless meanness of well-bred displaced Third World women, though my rhetoric has been learned elsewhere.
    --from "A Wife's Story" in "The Middleman and Other Stories" (1988)
  3. elocution
    an expert manner of speaking involving control of voice
    I want him to know that for all his flash and jangle and elocution lessons so he won't go around like an underworld Ricky Ricardo, to me he's just another boat person.
    --from "Loose Ends" in "The Middleman and Other Stories" (1988)
  4. transit
    a facility for the movement of passengers or goods
    Colombo, Seoul, Bombay, Geneva, Frankfurt, I know too too well the transit lounges of many airports. We travel the world with our gym bags and prayer rugs, unrolling them in the transit lounges.
    --from "Orbiting" in "The Middleman and Other Stories" (1988)
  5. exotic
    characteristic of another place or part of the world
    But, Christ, there's a difference between exotic and foreign, isn't there? Exotic means you know how to use your foreignness, or you make yourself a little foreign in order to appear exotic. Real foreign is a little scary, believe me.
    --from "Fighting for the Rebound" in "The Middleman and Other Stories" (1988)
  6. border
    the boundary line or area immediately inside the boundary
    Fran is being impulsively democratic, lumping her wayward lover and Indian friend together as headstrong adventurers. For Fran, a utopian and feminist, borders don't count.
    --from "The Tenant" in "The Middleman and Other Stories" (1988)
  7. alien
    a form of life assumed to exist outside the Earth
    Aliens have taken over small towns all over the country. Idaho, Nebraska: no state is safe from aliens.
    --from "Fathering" in "The Middleman and Other Stories" (1988)
  8. resident
    someone who lives at a particular place for a long period
    Danny took out ads in papers in India promising "guaranteed Permanent Resident status in the U.S." to grooms willing to proxy-marry American girls of Indian origin.
    --from "Danny's Girls" in "The Middleman and Other Stories" (1988)
  9. emigrate
    leave one's country of residence for a new one
    It was as much this classroom incident as the fear of arrest for his part in what turned out to be an out-of-control demonstration that made Mr. Venkatesan look into emigrating.
    --from "Buried Lives" in "The Middleman and Other Stories" (1988)
  10. feud
    a bitter quarrel between two parties
    We who stayed out of politics and came halfway around the world to avoid religious and political feuding have been the first in the New World to die from it.
    --from "The Management of Grief" in "The Middleman and Other Stories" (1988)
  11. mainstream
    the prevailing current of thought
    Mrs. Daboo would barge in with a plate of stale samosas and snoop around giving free advice on how mainstream Americans did things.
    --from "Jasmine" in "The Middleman and Other Stories" (1988)
  12. compassionate
    showing or having sympathy for another's suffering
    There are no harmless, compassionate ways to remake oneself. We murder who we were so we can rebirth ourselves in the images of dreams.
    --from the novel "Jasmine" (1989)
  13. outcast
    a person who is rejected (from society or home)
    We are the outcasts and deportees, strange pilgrims visiting outlandish shrines, landing at the end of tarmacs, ferried in old army trucks where we are roughly handled and taken to roped-off corners of waiting rooms where surly, barely wakened customs guards await their bribe.
    --from the novel "Jasmine" (1989)
  14. diaphanous
    so thin as to transmit light
    I feel at times like a stone hurtling through diaphanous mist, unable to grab hold, unable to slow myself, yet unwilling to abandon the ride I’m on. Down and down I go, where I’ll stop, God only knows.
    --from the novel "Jasmine" (1989)
  15. reckless
    marked by defiant disregard for danger or consequences
    I am out the door and in the potholed and rutted driveway, scrambling ahead of Taylor, greedy with wants and reckless from hope.
    --from the novel "Jasmine" (1989)
Created on Thu Feb 02 13:09:44 EST 2017 (updated Thu Feb 02 17:41:32 EST 2017)

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