When “Meeting Mrinal” opens, Asha, the Indian-born protagonist, who now lives in California, is somewhat guiltily preparing a ready-made pizza for her teenage son, Dinesh. Asha’s husband, Mahesh, with whom she had an arranged marriage in India, has left her for a younger white woman. Though Asha used to spend hours preparing complex Indian meals from fresh ingredients for the family, she has almost given up cooking since Mahesh left. She now spends her time studying library science in order to get a full-time job and getting fit in an exercise class. Since Mahesh left, Asha and Dinesh no longer talk much. He shuts himself in his room, listening to or playing music. One day, Asha gets a telephone call from Mrinal, a childhood friend from India whom she has not seen for nearly twenty years. Mrinal is now a successful businesswoman living in Bombay. She is coming to San Francisco for a conference and wants to meet Asha and her family. Asha has always had a competitive relationship with the glamorous, career-driven, and unmarried Mrinal and inwardly feels inferior to her. Asha’s delight at hearing from her friend soon gives way to fear and shame at the thought of admitting that her husband has left her. Asha feels particularly defensive as Mrinal had counseled her against agreeing to an early arranged marriage, advising her to finish college and get a job. Asha talks to Mrinal as if her marriage is still intact but makes up excuses to get out of meeting her, saying that Mahesh is out of town, that she is busy, and that Dinesh has pressing engagements. Finally, she realizes that she cannot disappoint her friend and sets up a meeting.
Dinesh is angry with his mother for lying to Mrinal. He asks why she could not tell the truth: Mahesh got tired of her and left her for another woman. Asha slaps Dinesh, claiming to object to his swearing, but in reality, she is inwardly furious at his voicing an uncomfortable truth. For the next few days, Dinesh avoids Asha. She tries to win him over by cooking his favorite Indian dish and apologizing, but he says he has already eaten and coldly dismisses her attempts at reconciliation.
Asha rummages for an outfit for her meeting with Mrinal, worrying that all her clothes are too garish or too drab. She recalls the day when Mahesh told her that their marriage was over. Asha could scarcely believe what she was hearing, as she thought back to their apparently happy family life. When Asha asked him whether he had ever been happy with her, Mahesh said that he thought he had, but he did not know what real happiness was. Asha fought against the divorce, even buying a sexy negligee to try to win Mahesh back, but he moved out the same night.
Asha is nervous about meeting Mrinal. She reflects that Mrinal has the perfect life: She assumes simplistically that Mrinal has “ money, freedom, admiration ,” and “ she doesn’t have to worry about pleasing anyone .” Asha’s envy is mixed with a feeling of comfort at the thought of Mrinal’s success, despite the fact that it makes her own life seem cluttered and ordinary.
When Asha enters the restaurant, she sees Mrinal sitting at one of the tables, looking glamorous. Asha looks in vain for a sign that Mrinal is secretly unhappy. As the two women embrace, Asha notices a ring on Mrinal’s finger and asks if is an engagement ring, but Mrinal says she bought it for herself. Asha is impressed by this independent act. Mrinal begs Asha to tell her about Mahesh and Dinesh. Asha does so, without revealing that her marriage is over. Mrinal sadly says that Asha is lucky to have such a wonderful husband and son. She reveals that she herself is unhappy and begins to cry. She admits that she had planned to pretend that everything was fine with her life, but when she saw the love for her family shining in Asha’s face, she could not keep it up. The two women part without Asha’s revealing her own secret.
Asha drives home. She closes the garage door behind her but does not switch off the engine. As the garage fills with fumes, she weeps for Mrinal’s and her own loneliness and also for their profound disillusionment. The idea of Mrinal’s perfect life had made her own sorrows easier to bear, but now as that perfection has been shown to be a mirage, she feels as though she has nothing to sustain her.
Suddenly realizing that suicide is not the answer, Asha turns off the engine and stumbles out of the garage. Dinesh appears. Full of concern for his mother, he helps her to the bathroom, where she vomits. She reflects that though she has always tried to be the perfect wife and mother, she has lost her husband, lied to her friend, and vomited over the sink in her son’s presence. Then, an image takes shape in her mind: a beautiful clay bowl from her art appreciation class. There is a tiny flaw on the lip. Her teacher had said that this was a deliberate flaw that the master potter left in all his works in the belief that it made them more human and more precious.
Source:
Ira Mark Milne – Short Stories for Students – Presenting Analysis, Context & Criticism on Commonly Studied Short Stories, vol. 24, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Published by Gale Group, 2006