Blog of Parag

Brain fried...

Yesterday, I was listening to my favorite NPR radio program, This American Life. In yesterday's episode, Fake I.D., Mira Nair read a story, "This Blessed House". It was about an Indian Hindu couple who moved into a house in Connecticut and found a lot of Christian artefacts. The story describes how they react to them differently and how that was related to their relationship. It was a very interesting story; I liked it a lot and was wondering who the author was.

At the end of the story, it was revealed by the host of the show Ira Glass. The story was from Jhumpa Lahiri's hit book, "Interpreter of Maladies". I had read that book when it came out in 1999-2000. It has been only 6 years since then, but I couldn't recall any portion of the story when I was listening to it. There was no 'deja vu' feeling. What is going on with my memory? Not that I drink much, but is my brain so badly fried not to remember something that I had read before?

It is possible that the story didn't make a great impression on me when I read it. Because I remember other stories from that book. Sometimes, the storyteller can make a story better than it is and Mira Nair narrated it very well. Go, listen to it yourself.