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Kaushik
Dr. Choudhuri is Kaushik’s father, a reserved and practical man who relocated his family to America from India in pursuit of a better life. His pragmatic approach reflects his preference for control and structure, traits that also manifest in his somewhat distant relationship with Kaushik. A couple years after his wife Parul’s death, Dr. Choudhuri remarries to a younger Bengali widow named Chitra, an action that Kaushik deeply resents, as it symbolically distances him from his mother’s memory. Though well-meaning and caring, Dr. Choudhuri’s decisions reveal his struggle to understand and respond to his son’s emotional needs, instead prioritizing his personal stability and companionship.
Dr. Choudhuri/Kaushik’s Father Quotes in Unaccustomed Earth
The Unaccustomed Earth quotes below are all either spoken by Dr. Choudhuri/Kaushik’s Father or refer to Dr. Choudhuri/Kaushik’s Father. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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6. Hema and Kaushik: Once in a Lifetime Quotes
“They should have known it’s impossible to go back,” they said to their friends, condemning your parents for having failed at both ends. We had stuck it out as immigrants while you had fled; had we been the ones to go back to India, my parents seemed to suggest, we would have stuck it out there as well.
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7. Hema and Kaushik: Year’s End Quotes
I was suddenly sickened by her, by the sight of her standing in our kitchen. I had no memories of my mother cooking there, but the space still retained her presence more than any other part of the house.
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They would recall all of this, perhaps not as clearly as I remember those first months at your parents’ home, but nevertheless they would remember. Like them I had lost a parent and was now being asked to accept a replacement. I wondered how well they remembered their father; Piu would only have been five at the time.
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But there were too many pictures, and after a few I, like my father, could no longer bear their sight. A slight lessening in the pressure of my fingertips and the ones I was holding would have blown away into that wild sea, scattering down to where my mother’s ashes already resided. [...] so I put them back in the box and began to break the hardened ground.
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Dr. Choudhuri/Kaushik’s Father Character Timeline in Unaccustomed Earth
The timeline below shows where the character Dr. Choudhuri/Kaushik’s Father appears in Unaccustomed Earth. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
6. Hema and Kaushik: Once in a Lifetime
...family gradually stops talking about Kaushik’s family altogether. But on New Year’s Day in 1981, Kaushik’s father , Dr. Choudhuri, phones, informing Hema’s family that they’re moving back to Massachusetts and asking...
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Soon, Dr. Choudhuri begins his new engineering position and purchases himself an Audi. Kaushik, who’s waiting to begin...
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7. Hema and Kaushik: Year’s End
A few years after the death of Kaushik’s mother, Kaushik’s father unexpectedly remarries, calling Kaushik in his final year at Swarthmore to break the news. Dr....
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When Parul was diagnosed with breast cancer, Dr. Choudhuri seemed to fall in love with her all over again, doting on her every need...
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When Kaushik arrives at Dr. Choudhuri ’s house—where Parul spent her final years—to meet Chitra and her girls during winter break,...
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Kaushik wonders why Dr. Choudhuri isn’t drinking Johnnie Walker as he typically would at this time—when Parul was first diagnosed,...
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...The girls mention Chitra has been searching for photos of Parul, but Kaushik explains that Dr. Choudhuri took them all down.
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...Parul’s hair loss during her illness and the synthetic wigs she wore until her death. Kaushik’s father returns with a Christmas tree, intending to trim it with Parul’s old decorations, which are...
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Not wanting Chitra to touch Parul’s old ornaments, Kaushik abandons the search, telling Dr. Choudhuri he couldn’t find them. Where he once resented his father for attempting to erase Parul...
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When Dr. Choudhuri and Chitra are invited to a New Year’s party by Bengali friends, Kaushik offers to...
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When Kaushik calls Dr. Choudhuri from a payphone the next day, he realizes that Rupa and Piu never told Chitra...
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...discovered. Unable to bear seeing the pictures again, he buries the box there. Before graduation, Kaushik’s father informs him that he and Chitra are selling the house and moving to a neighborhood...
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8. Hema and Kaushik: Going Ashore
...largely out of the United States, which he is grateful for. He avoids his father, Dr. Choudhuri , and his “new” family on the rare occasions he finds himself in Massachusetts. Rupa...
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