Analysis and interpretation of Susmita Bhattacharya's short story "Dusk over Atlantic Warf"

The short story “Dusk Over Atlantic Warf” is written by Sismita bhattacharya in 2006. The Story “Dusk Over Atlantic Warf” takes place in Cardiff the capital of Wales, which the narrator informs us about. The story is taking place in the present time, because movie theaters, nightclubs, high school, Hollywood movies and Jennifer Lopez are mentioned in the text.
The social environment in the text, is much as it is today in Cardiff, with nightclubs and movie theaters. The text start in Medias res, and the narrator is from a reliable third person narrative.

The story is about Lata and her husband Anuj. Lata is married off by her father, to an Indian man named Anuj. The Indian couple is living in Cardiff. Anuj has lived in Great Britain for six years and Lata has been in Great Britain for 4 months. One day she is looking out of the window and thinking about her neighbors. She finds the day dull and she want to do something exciting. Lata and Anuj were going to the Atlantic Wharf theatre and watching a Bollywood movie. Lata is fascinated of the movie because it is an Indian movie and therefor recorded in India. Instead of watching the movie, Lata is telling about the things in the background. After the movie she is sad and crying. Anuj is overwhelmed and ask her if she is alright. She said that she is alright and wants to go home.
Lata is the main character in the short story. Lata is a young woman probably in the 20. She has been living in wales for fore month, but she was originally raised in India and has lived there until she recently was marriage off to Anuj. The first impression we get of Lata, is that she is a cheerful person and want to do something exiting “It’s such a dull day. Let’s do something exiting. (P. 1.1)”.
Lata is not very happy of the British culture, which we can see in the story “she was too afraid to befriend them, not knowing if she would be welcomed, and not bothering to find out (P. 1.23)” she is not open to meet new people around her, ore maybe is she afraid of that she would not fit in like an Indian woman.
We are told that Lana is missing India throughout the story. An example from the text “She walked to the window. The sky loomed large and grey over the chimney tops and television aerials. Lata missed the drama of colours played out in the sky (P.1.11)”. We can see that Lata does not find it comfortable living in Cardiff yet. The weather is grey and dull, which could symbolize the way she sees Cardiff. She sees India more colorful and want to go back home. When Lata and Anuj are watching the Indian movie, does Lata only see the things in the background. “There’s Marine Drive, oh look, my college. See the beach? That’s where we used to go after class. You get amazing ice-cream there. That’s Shivaji Park. It’s very close to our house (P.3-4.121)”. This shows us how much she miss her home in India. She can not watch the movie without commenting her memories.

But even though she misses her life back in India, she still wants to try, to have a good life together whit Anuj. Lata’s mother have told her back in India that, she would learn to love her new husband. I the text Lata show us that she want to love her husband Anuj desperately “It was true, she was his bride and wanted to love him desperately, but he made is so difficult for her at times (P.2.55)”, that shows us also that Lata is a conscientious girl. Throughout the story, Lata is getting more and more proven about Anuj, and that he really want to love Lata back. We can see it in these examples from the text; “Lata hugged his arm and laughed (P.3.107)” and “No, he really did want to watch this film with me, she decided. (P.3.112)”.
In the start of the story she talks about her home as India, but in the ending after the movie, she says “Let’s go home (P.4.150)”, where she refers to their home in Cardiff.
The narrator are using a number of symbols, one of the symbols are the girls at the nightclub, they symbolize Lata and her friends back in India. Another symbol is the mehendi on Lata’s hand, the mehendi symbolize that she is a bride. In the ending where Lata is burst into tears in the car, is where she realize that her old life in India is over. But she also accept and realize, that her new life and her new home is together with Anuj in Wales “yeah, I’m alright. Let’s go home (P4.150)”.
The main theme in the story is culture adjustment, since Lata, cannot get adjusted to the new culture in Wales, she only wants to do things that are familiar to her, and when she is out, she gets overwhelmed by it. When Anuj and Lata are going to the Atlantic Wharf, she truly realizes how different the two cultures are. Another themes in the story could be, arranged marriage. Lata is married to Anuj by arrangement of her father, and the story could show the problems and the consequences by arrange marriage. The problems and consequences by arranged marriage in the story is, that Lata first need to learn Anuj to know, and after that, she have to learn to love him.