A Guardian and a Thief By Megha Majumdar - 11

BABA’S AMERICA WAS A STUDIO apartment with beige carpet so soft he wanted to apologize for planting his feet on it. Baba’s America was a new language— bell peppers for capsicum, I’m good for no thank you, no worries for this is causing me a great deal of worry. Baba’s America was laid over his home country, on some days less a place of its own than a film through which he finally saw the city where he had grown up. Was silence, silence, silence, no neighbors calling, no ladles striking cooking pots, no click-click of kitchen stoves, no bells ringing for evening prayers, no sellers hawking their basket of goods down the street, no Kwality Walls ice cream shouting that he had Cornettos and Viennettas. Was a person on the sidewalk walking his dog, who refused to grant him a smile. Was another person on the sidewalk who said morning and made him feel, for a day, accepted. Was a proliferation of cases of malaria, in people who had not traveled outside the country in years. Was fields of corn, cucumber, and asparagus withering, rivers depleted, cacti where there had once been broad-leafed trees—all of which Baba understood but did not bring to the realm of talk. Was the disappearance of cherries from fruit markets, on which he tolerated comment from colleagues. Was a tentative friendship with a colleague, polite and measured, a museum visit and a coffee where Baba felt himself on the stage of a small theater, performing for an audience consisting of himself. Was a series of driving lessons in a sedan with a peculiar flag stuck to the dashboard. Was a co-worker who said wasn’t it so hurtful to be asked where are you really from, and feeling he had no choice but to agree when he felt he truly wouldn’t mind, not even after decades of living in America, that he would always like the opening to speak about his city. The pride of having immigrated was also, in truth, the wound. Didn’t they understand that? Didn’t they understand that he wanted every opportunity to examine the wound?