#402 White Christmas- Sandip Roy

#402 White Christmas- Sandip Roy

It was Christmas, and this was Amit’s first year away from Calcutta, from home. He was in Binghamton, NY going to school, and couldn’t afford the trip back. He learned a lot this year, mostly about the differences in culture, His school mentor, Satsih, a PhD student gave him advice. “…he was Amit’s authority on all things American, like health insurance, bars, and race.”

It was race that confused him the most, the importance of it, the stereoptypes used by both Satish and his mother. He found that he had his own attractions to race as well. On this Christmas he went looking for something to eat and found himself in a bar alone for the first time. It would be a night of firsts.

Rating: 8-7-8-8 Total= 31

#371 The Purple Hat- Eudora Welty

#371 The Purple Hat- Eudora Welty

It’s a rainy day in New Orleans, men sit in a dark bar:

“Beyond the open door the rain fell, the heavy color of the sea, in air where sunlight was still suspended. Its watery reflection lighted the room, as a room might have lighted a mousehole.”

As the slow scene unfolds, a fat man tells a story about the woman in a purple hat. Everyday at five o’clock she can be seen at the Palace of Pleasure, a gambling hall. There she meets a young man and stays till midnight—this has happened everyday for the last thirty years.

The fat man tells his story as the bartender dismally looks on. She is a ghost, the fat man believes, as he himself has seen her murdered twice! When the clock strikes five, a young man listening at the end of the bar takes up and leaves—probably to go search for the lady in the purple hat. “New Orleans…is the birthplace of ready-made victims.”

Rating: 7-6-6-6 Total= 25