Rice : Jhumpa Lahiri BBS 1st Year Patterns for College Writing

 

Descriptive Essay ‘Rice’ by Jhumpa Lahiri (page 148)

Essayist Introduction

Jhumpa Lahiri was born in London in 1967. Later, her family moved to the United States, where she attended Barnard College and received multiple graduate degrees, including a PhD in Renaissance studies from Boston University. Lahiri has won several literary awards, including a Pulitzer Prize and a PEN/Hemingway Award. Her fiction often explores Indian and Indian-American life and culture, as does this personal essay, which originally appeared in the New Yorker magazine. 

The Main Theme of the Essay

The main theme of "Rice" by Jhumpa Lahiri is how food holds deep emotional and cultural meaning, tying people to their past. The story shows how something as ordinary as rice becomes a strong reminder of home for the Bengali woman at its center. Through her connection with rice—cooking it, eating it, and longing for it—she deals with loneliness, memories of her homeland, and the challenge of fitting into a new place while keeping her traditions alive. Lahiri quietly reveals how small, daily habits can carry great weight, offering both comfort and a sense of loss in the life of someone far from home.

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Summary of the Essay

The ancient Indian word for rice (“dhanya”) means “sustainer of the human race.” Rice can be symbolic as well: we throw rice at weddings because it suggests fertility and prosperity. For Lahiri, the significance of rice is personal rather than universal. She describes her father’s pulao dish as both an expression of his idiosyncratic (distinctive/unique) personality and a symbol that binds her family together. She describes her father's behaviour and his everyday routine from morning to night. Lahiri shows her admiration when she explains all about her dad and his way of making Pulao. Lahiri explains the way her dad makes the pulao in every detail.

Jhumpa’s father is seventy-eight years old and is a disciplined man. For thirty-nine years, he has had the same job: cataloguing books for a university library. He has got a regular schedule. Every day in the morning he starts his day with two glasses of water and walks for an hour, and flosses his teeth before to bed. In the kitchen, too, he walks a deliberate line, counting out the raisins that go into his oatmeal and never boiling even a drop more water than required for tea. He knows how many cups of rice are necessary to feed four, or forty, or even a hundred and forty people. He has a reputation for andaj — the Bengali word for “estimate” — accurately gauging quantities. She describes how her father is more famous for making pulao - a baked, buttery, sophisticated indulgence, Persian in origin, served on festive occasions. Lahiri often watches him making it. It involves sautéing (frying) grains of basmati in butter, along with cinnamon sticks, cloves, bay leaves, cardamom pods, cashews and raisins. A certain amount of water is added, and the rice simmers until most of the water evaporates. Then it is spread out in a baking tray. Despite having a superficial knowledge of the ingredients and the technique, Lahiri has no idea how to make her father’s pulao, nor would she ever dare attempt it. She further explains that the recipe is her dad's own, and has never been recorded. She describes how her father is more famous for making pulao - a baked, buttery, sophisticated indulgence, Persian in origin, served on festive occasions. Lahiri often watches him making it. It involves sautéing (frying) grains of basmati in butter, along with cinnamon sticks, cloves, bay leaves, and cardamom pods, In go halved cashews and raisins. A certain amount of water is added, and the rice simmers until most of the water evaporates. Then it is spread out in a baking tray. Despite having a superficial knowledge of the ingredients and the technique, Lahiri has no idea how to make her father’s pulao, nor would she ever dare attempt it.

Moreover, she further explains that the recipe is her dad's own, and has never been recorded. It is a dish that has become an extension of himself, that he has perfected, and to which he has earned the copyright. A dish that will die with him when he dies. In 1968, when Jhumpa was seven months old, to celebrate her annaprasan, a rite of passage in which Bengali children are given solid food for the first time; which is also colloquially known as a bhath, which happens to be the Bengali word for “cooked rice” her father made pulao for the first time. They used to live in London then, in Finsbury Park, where her parents shared the kitchen, up a steep set of stairs in the attic of the house, with another Bengali couple. 

Her father baked pulao for about thirty-five people. Since then, he has made pulao for the annaprasans of his friends’ children, for birthday parties and anniversaries, for bridal and baby showers, for wedding receptions, and for her sister’s PhD party. For a few decades, after they moved to the United States, his pulao fed crowds of up to four hundred people at different events and occasions. Lahiri describes the difference when her son and daughter were infants, and they celebrated their first annaprasans with the same pulao her father makes. She hired a caterer, but her father made the pulao, preparing it at home in Rhode Island and transporting it in the trunk of his car to Brooklyn. In 2002, for her son’s first taste of rice, her father warmed the trays on the premises, in the giant oven in the basement. But by 2005, when it was her daughter’s turn, the representative on duty did not permit her father to use the oven, telling him that he was not a licensed cook. Her father transferred the pulao from his aluminium trays into glass baking dishes, and microwaved, batch by batch, rice that fed almost a hundred people. When she asked her father to describe that experience, he expressed without frustration, “It was fine.” Lahiri has such admiration for her father’s way of always keeping a positive attitude. She learned how to respect and admire her father’s decisions and the passion he had for making his favourite dish.                  

Comprehension

1.       How does Lahiri describe her father? What is his most important character trait?

She describes him as consistent and committed to routines. His methodical nature is his most notable trait.

2.       According to Lahiri, what is special about pulao? Why is it served just on festive occasions?

Unlike standard white rice, pulao involves a specific combination of ingredients and is served only on festive occasions, likely because of the involved cooking process. It is considered a sophisticated dish.

3.       What is annaprasan? Why is this occasion so important to Bengalis?

An annaprasan is an important occasion for the Hindus. An annaprasan is a special marking the first time a child is given solid food to eat. Culturally, it is considered a rite of passage. Relatives and neighbours are invited home and they are served delicious food items.

4.       Why, according to Lahiri, would she never try to make pulao?

She doesn’t fully understand the technique and ratio of ingredients her father used for the pulao, and he has never recorded his recipe. She sees the dish as an extension of her father that only he has the right to make.

5.       What does Lahiri mean when she says that pulao is a dish for which her father “has earned the copyright”?

Her father has reached a point with this dish that is very closely associated with him; he is known for making pulao. He has made it for hundreds and hundreds of people on several occasions and knows the recipe by heart, and he seems to enjoy making it. His passion and skills for making the dish have made it a part of who he is as a person.

Purpose and Audience

1.      How much does Lahiri assume her readers know about Bengali culture? How can you tell?

She assumes that the reader does not know much about the culture. When she uses Bengali words, like “andaj” and “annaprasan”, she explains what they mean. She also explains both the type of rice Bengalis often eat for dinner and how it differs from pulao.

2.      Is this essay simply about rice-more specially pulao- or is it also about something else? Explain.

The essay is more about the author’s father than it is about the dish itself. The author talks about how methodical her father is and expands upon this characteristic by using the pulao as an example. She writes about how skilled he is at estimating the ingredients accurately and the specificity of the ingredients he prefers to have. She also stresses how calm he can remain under pressure when she writes about how many people he cooks for and the ease at which he can adapt to new circumstances.

3.      Does this essay have an explicitly stated or implied thesis? What dominant impression do you think Lahiri wants to convey?

The thesis is implied (indirectly stated) and is that Lahiri’s father’s methodical personality made him very skilled at cooking pulao. It seems that Lahiri wants to convey a dominant impression of warmth and respect for her father.

Style and Structure

1.     Why does Lahiri begin her essay by describing her father?

Lahiri begins the essay this way to set up a framework through which the reader can view the rest of the text. By describing the very orderly and deliberate way that her father goes through life, the author prepares the reader to imagine her father putting a similar level of meticulous care into the pulao.

2.     This essay is divided into three parts: the first describes Lahiri's father, the second describes the making of pulao, and the third describes the occasions on which her father cooked pulao. How does Lahiri signal the shift from one part of the essay to another? What other strategies could she have used?

Before Lahiri begins describing how Pulao is made, she talked about how good her father was at estimating quantities of rice. She uses this anecdote to transition into a description of the rice dish her father is famous for. After this description, she transitions into discussing the occasions on which he cooked the rice by looking back on a specific time: "In 1968, when I was seven months old..." This transition mentally prepares the reader for a shift in the essay. To transition into the section of the essay that discusses the making of Pulao, Lahiri could have tried using transitions like "My father knew how to make pulao by heart". or "It is a process I have witnessed on countless occasions throughout my life." When she transitions into talking about the occasions on which her father made pulao, the author could have started paragraph 5 with "The first time I tasted pulao was on my annaprasan."

3.     Why does Lahiri go into so much detail about her father’s pulao recipe?

The reason to go into detail about her father's pulao recipe is to show that he can make pulao without his recipe recorded, and she has seen the process to know how it is made well; however, she has never attempted to make it.

4.     What does pulao mean to Lahiri? Does it have the same meaning for her father? Explain.

No, pulao does not mean the same to her father as it means to Lahiri. For her, pulao is an indication of her father's love for her and others around along with his methodical nature. On the other hand, pulao for her father is a matter of pride, and he gets meticulously involved in making the dish. He does it to expose his methodical personality and express love to those he makes pulao for.

5.     Why does Lahiri end her essay with a quotation? Is this an effective closing strategy? What other strategies could she have used?

Ending the essay with a quotation makes it feel poignant, and works quite effectively here. Because Lahiri doesn't incorporate any quotations before this point, this choice feels even more powerful. It is a good way to reflect her father's personality; from this quote, he sounds like an easygoing person despite his systematic tendencies.

If Lahiri wanted to use an alternative strategy, she could have either restated her main idea (that her father's methodical nature makes him a good cook) or given a final reflection of her feelings on the subject.

 

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