Response to Memoir by Pooja Makhijani

After reading this memoir began to think about the main reason she wrote this article. In my opinion, she wrote this article in order to show the contrast between the beliefs of her mother, who believes that she should attempt to lead a more traditional Indian lifestyle, and herself, who is eager to assimilate into the more modern, American culture. Although I agree with her about fitting in, f I were her I would embrace her culture, simply because it’s different than normal, much like the girl in her class that she meets from Pakistan. This story reminds me of when I was in fifth grade and a student who had moved from Thailand was placed in our class. However, he was somewhat anxious about trying American style food because he had never heard of mac and cheese or hot dogs etc., but eventually he grew accustomed to the American culture in defiance to his parent’s beliefs. Sadly he moved back to Thailand the next year. For me, this experience was very similar to the one portrayed in the book and that’s what I found interesting about this memoir.