A Study of Indian Diaspora in Jhumpa Lahiri's Short Story Mrs. Sen's

The Indian diaspora, there has been a considerable attention in critical studies particularly by immigrant writers who deal with the issues of displacement, cultural disorientation and identity crisis. The present paper analyses the portrayal of diasporic consciousness in Mrs. Sen’s, one of the short stories that belong to Jhumpa Lahiri's highly lauded collection Interpreter of Maladies (1999). This paper analyses Mrs. Sen’s psychological, emotional and cultural conflicts of being an Indian immigrant woman in the US who tries to bridge her private world of loneliness with American way of life. Engaging in a close reading, the paper also examines issues of alienation, cultural memory, food behaviours, gendered identity and trauma of dislocation. The figure of Mrs. Sen represents immigrant woman shaped by collectivist societies who struggle to adjust to an in a foreign land. The paper argues that Lahiri doesn't just see diaspora as moving from one place to another; she also sees it as a deep and wide-reaching psychological and emotional rupture that shakes both individuality and cultural continuity.