The Narrator

The narrator remains unnamed throughout the story. She is an elderly woman from Southeast India who has been living in a retirement/nursing home for two years. After losing her husband, her daughter Kamala suggested she move into the community so she would not be alone. The narrator is practical, judgmental, and though she does not say so explicitly, fearful. She laments the more traditional aspects of Indian culture and envies those wealthy enough to keep their children close to them. More than anything, the narrator wishes for her daughter to move back to India so they can return to the city where the narrator spent her whole life.

Kamala

Kamala is the narrator's daughter. She is presumably middle-aged, based on the fact that the narrator says at the time of her husband's death, Kamala's hair was "speckled with white" (3). Kamala lives in Alpharetta, Georgia, a small...