Loneliness and Uncertain Fate

The central theme of "Malliga Homes" surrounds the narrator's experience as an elderly woman who has lost her husband and whose daughter has immigrated to America. Though she never says it explicitly, the narrator feels a profound sense of loneliness living at Malliga Homes – she misses the familiarity of the city in Chennai, and she especially laments not having her family close by. When she describes Malliga Homes at the beginning of the story, she says, "I am lucky to be here, my Kamala likes to remind me. It is only the second place of its kind in South India, and the units sold out quickly. Still, no amount of expensive stone or carefully worded praise from my daughter can change what Malliga Homes is: a place for those who have nowhere else to go" (2). Here, the narrator shares her bleak outlook with...