Do geographical demarcations define a person's identity? This question is especially poignant for people from postcolonial nations exiled from their homelands. A recent article on diaspora states that “diaspora has brought about profound changes in the demographics, cultures, epistemologies, and politics of the postcolonial world” (Silva 72). The effects of diaspora and exile are exposed in Jhumpa Lahiri's short story collection, Interpreter of Maladies. Many of the stories in Lahiri's collection are set against the backdrop of the India-Pakistan war and the partition of India in 1947, during which India and Pakistan were geographically divided into two separate nations (Keen). In particular, the stories “A Real Durwan” and “When Pirzada Came to Dine” show the significant impact that war and partition had on the identities, culture and relationships of the Indian and Pakistani peoples of the time. While both stories dramatize the diaspora experience, Lahiri also shows how each character's experience is unique to their specific context. For example, in “A Real Durwan,” the main character, a poor woman named Boori Ma, stays in India and shows the “uneasy relationship between the natives of Calcutta and those who cross the border” (Mitra 242). Unlike Boori Ma, Mr. Pirzada is an educated, upper-middle-class Muslim who lives in the United States and conducts research on New England foliage. In “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine,” Lahiri demonstrates how Indians and Pakistanis stranded in the United States are able to find “acceptance and comfort across barriers of nations, cultures, religions, and generations” (Rath 73). However, despite their different situations, both Boori Ma and Mr. Pirzada endure displacement from their homelands. As such, both characters experience a similar sense of alienation, loss, and nostalgia for their home country that is central to the experience of diaspora and exile. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay After July 1947, India would never be the same. In August, India freed itself from Britain and its apathetic treatment, whose colonial rule had lasted nearly three hundred and fifty years (Keen). As Bates states, despite India's achievement of freedom, a religious divide existed between Muslims and Hindus, resulting in constant conflict over supposedly irreconcilable differences. In 1943, the Muslim League decided to extricate itself from India; this resulted in a breakaway Muslim state, which eventually became known as Pakistan (Keen). Their desire for separation can be attributed to the British classification system based on the religious beliefs and ideological differences that existed between Muslims and Hindus of India. While some still hoped to keep India united under a three-tier government, Congress's rejection of this plan made the Muslim League believe that partition was the only option. The successful partition of India into separate entities, India and Pakistan, was achieved at great cost (Bates). The riots led to the deaths of a million people along with countless rapes and pillaging. With new borders designated based on religious beliefs, fifteen million people found themselves displaced from their homes and sought refuge in areas completely new to them in the largest mass migration ever. In 1971, a civil war in Pakistan led to further divisions and the birth of Bangladesh. According to Keen, “many years after the partition, the two nations are still trying toheal the wounds left by this incision on India's entire body. Many are still searching for an identity and history left behind an impenetrable border." While the Muslims achieved the desired separation from the Hindus, this war adversely affected millions of people, including both Boori Ma and Mr. Pirzada. A refugee following the 1947 partition, Boori Ma experiences “the rigors of reconciliation and integration into the disturbing labyrinth of a new life” after losing everything, including her husband and four daughters (Rath 73). Going from riches to rags after being expelled from her homeland, like many others, Boori Ma unintentionally takes on the position of a “fragmented immigrant woman” living in the stairwell (Rath 73). With "his voice: brittle with pain, sour as curd, and sharp enough to grate the flesh of a coconut, ... he describes in detail his plight and the losses he suffered after his deportation" as he sweeps the trumpet daily of the stairs, fulfilling her duties as Durwan, despite the fact that “under normal circumstances this was no job for a woman” (Lahiri 70, 73). Often reflecting on his past where he lived a life of luxury and extravagance, he nostalgically shares with residents: “A man came to harvest our dates and guavas. Another cut hibiscus. Yes, I tasted life there. Here I eat dinner in a pot of rice,” “Did I mention I crossed the border with only two bracelets on my wrist? Yet there was a day when my feet touched nothing but marble. Believe me, don't believe me, you can't even dream of such comforts", and "Our linen was muslin. Believe me, don't believe me, our mosquito nets were soft as silk. You cannot even dream of such comforts" (Lahiri 71, 74). The well-being he experiences before the diaspora contrasts sharply with his current lifestyle. Sleeping very little, owning very little possessions and having no friends, Boori Ma is a complete outsider living a poor life. Mitra's comment that "a person uprooted from history, displaced by the lines drawn on a map by an imperious colonial bureaucrat, Boori Ma is perceived as different," captures the extent of the consequences of Partition in the lives of individuals (243). Because of the changes to the borders of India and Pakistan, numerous civilians found themselves marginalized, including Boori Ma, as illustrated when the narrator observes, "Knowing not to sit on the furniture, [Boori Ma] squatted, instead, on the doors and corridors, and they observed gestures and mannerisms in the same way a person tends to observe traffic in a foreign city” (Lahiri 76). This perfectly describes the sense of alienation that Boori Ma faces comfortable in the residents' homes, Boori Ma develops shyness and apprehension similar to when “a person…[watches] traffic in a foreign city,” largely due to the way the residents treat her (Lahiri 76). significantly lower socioeconomic, Boori Ma is not treated as an equal, affirming the “strong portrayal of postpartition isolation and helplessness endured by migrants” (Mitra 245). Boori Ma's life in Calcutta is in stark contrast to her life before the diaspora. Eventually, the residents in the building are so enamored with financing the buildings' renovations that their already limited hospitality becomes almost non-existent, as revealed when Boori Ma mentions, “His mornings were long, his afternoons longer. He couldn't remember his last glass of tea” (Lahiri 80). Everyone was too busy worrying about other people's perception of themselves and what they were contributing tomaterialistic nature of society to recognize one's durwan. The residents' lack of appreciation for Boori Ma reaches a new level when she is falsely blamed for the disappearance of the building's basin and kicked out of the stairwell. The residents' blunt accusations: “'It's all because of her,' one of them shouted, pointing to Boori Ma,” and “We shared our coal, we gave her a place to sleep. How could he betray us like this?" vividly expose their hostilities towards border crossings (Lahiri 81). Unfortunately, because "his otherness makes the community indifferent to his historical situation", he finds himself homeless (Mitra 242) .Due to the border adjustments and the resulting religious intolerance, Boori Ma is not only deprived of her family and homeland, but also loses herself to dinner" differs in many ways from Boori Ma's. The narrator, Lilia, recounts that “In the fall of 1971 a man came to our house carrying sweets in his pocket and hoping to ascertain the life or death of his family ” (Lahiri 23). Although he also suffers from separation from his wife and seven daughters who remain in Dacca, where “teachers were dragged into the streets and shot, women dragged into barracks and raped,” Mr. Pirzada does not provoke the hostility that so often arose following the diaspora (Lahiri 23). Lilia's Hindu family defies the typical antipathy expressed towards Muslims, but rather offers company to Mr. Pirzada as he helplessly watches the destruction of his homeland and the brutal killings of people on the evening news from their living room. After Lilia, who is only ten years old, refers to Mr. Pirzada as “the Indian man,” she cannot understand her father's response that “Mr. Pirzada is no longer considered Indian. Not after Partition. Our country was divided. 1947. Hindus here, Muslims there” (Lahiri 25). Struggling to accept the alleged disparities between her family and Mr. Pirzada, she says: It didn't make sense to me. Mr. Pirzada and my parents spoke the same language, laughed at the same jokes, looked more or less the same. They ate pickled mangoes during meals, they ate rice every night for dinner with their hands… Yet my father insisted that I understand the difference (Lahiri 25). Silva's comment, “when Lilia tries to understand the difference between her father and Mr. Pirzada, shows that the organization of work – or the division of people into homogeneous and distinct groups – is not as solid and fixed as the structure of a map” confirms the sentiment that geographic demarcations do not define identity (Silva 61). While Lilia's parents recognize their religious differences, unlike many others, they do not use this as a reason for unfair treatment. Despite the thousands of kilometers that separate him from his home, Mr. Pirzada finds some consolation in the kind welcome that Lilia's family reserves for him. Lilia recalls that while the war was being fought in Dacca, “the three of them [operated] in that period as if they were one person, sharing a single meal, a single body, a single silence and a single fear” (Lahiri 41). This demonstrates the absurdity of the dissociation between Muslims and Hindus in India and Pakistan. United in concern for the safety of Mr. Pirzada's family, Lilia's family and Mr. Pirzada's status as a Hindu or Muslim has no meaning. While each of them continues to hope for the safety of Mr. Pirzada's wife and daughters, Lilia takes the position of Mr. Pirzada's temporary daughter while he remains in the United States. He highlights his paternal tendencies when he asks Lilia, “You will stay. 2012.