*I don't read the fiction of Professor Lahiri, so I can't call myself a fan of hers, but I have quite a lot of respect for her as a contemporary cultural figure. Whenever I read an interview with her, or a public statement of some kind, she always strikes me as a person who is wise, modern and somehow really gets it.
*Here she is in a cover story for an Indian magazine expressing her delicate melancholy over the fact that she can't bilocate in Rome and Princeton, while being stuck at "home" as an innately multicultural person who never had much in the way of home to begin with. I tend to jaunt around quite a lot myself, when the planet's not convulsed by epidemic, and I'm glad to read this testimony of hers. It cheers me up to hear it said.
https://www.vogue.in/culture-and-living/content/jhumpa-lahiri-cover-interview-vogue-india-may-2020-digital-issue-family-is-everything
(...)
It has also made us re-examine our ideas about family, who we’re with or we’re not.
My son, who was in Rome, has been back for about a month. We realised that this problem was not going to just go away and that it was going to get more complicated. So we had him come to us here in Princeton. With all the uncertainty, you want to be around family and go through it together. I’m lucky to be with mine. I’m also realising that I’m much more spoiled than I thought: I have family all over the globe and became used to sitting on a plane and getting to see them in a day or less. I mean, you don’t even consider distance anymore if you have the economic means to travel.
But this is the time you want to surround yourself with the people who will support and sustain you through this period; it’s hard to go through this alone. One of the hardest things about this time are the people who are losing family and loved ones to this disease. Sometimes, they cannot accompany them during their illness or even attend their funerals. It’s beyond tragic.
It has been a mentally exhausting time, even for those of us safe at home. Where are you at right now?
You know, you go through the day wondering: What am I going to make for dinner? Do I need to buy groceries? Is it going to rain today or will we get a bit of sun? Can I go out for a walk? And then there’s other concerns, like my son who is graduating from high school this year. But is he going to graduate? Will that be acknowledged and celebrated? Will he go to college in the fall? I think we are sort of vacillating wildly. There are light-hearted worries and then there are the bigger, more complex questions.
But there have to be moments in a day where we stop the thoughts, you know? Meditate, go for a run, sink into a Netflix binge or disappear in a book. But I do feel more inspired these days to tell my family members that I love them; to show my affection for them and hug the people that I can hug and laugh with, while we can. It’s like the power is out and life is running on a generator right now. I'm functioning, but it's not the way it should be, and it's exhausting and depleting.
What is the role of literature and art and the creative process in the midst of a pandemic?
For me, it's really central. It keeps me moving and focused, sane and inspired....
