Summary

“The Word Love” by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni tells the story of an Indian woman doing her Ph.D. in the US who practices telling her mother back in India that she is in a relationship with Rex, an American man, and that she has moved in with him. However, she always postpones it and cries over it because she is too afraid of her mother’s reaction. When she tries to explain it to Rex, telling him her mother is very conservative, Rex cannot relate to Indian culture.

During a phone conversation with her mother, the protagonist does not have the courage to tell her mother the truth and only listens to news about her aunt and uncle looking for a husband for her cousin.

After the protagonist moved in with Rex, she forbade him to answer the phone, afraid that it might be her mother. However, in time,...