The Moral We Create Ourselves in "A Real Durwan"

"A Real Durwan" felt like a fairy tale or a parable.  On the surface, it had the very simple construction of a moral tale, where the people who lived in the building get a slight turn in their fortune for the better, and the generosity of one sparks a competition.  Their greed and jealousy eventually get the better of them when there is a downturn in fortune and the basin is stolen from them, causing them to place the blame upon someone else, in this case they place it on Boori Ma.  In a traditional fairy tale or parable either Boori Ma or another figure of wisdom would chastise them for this and would teach them the error of their ways, imparting a moral lesson, upon which they would repent, inviting Boori Ma to return and they would repent by using the money they were spending on upscaling their building to making her situation more comfortable.  This story is particularly interesting because it ends after they cast out Boori Ma.  No moral lesson or bit of wisdom is imparted.  It forces the reader to do the hard work of creating the moral of the story, and it also reminds us that we have to be the wise person and give ourselves the morals of our own actions, because in real life it's never as simple as it is in parables.  By forcing the reader to put a message to the story, Lahiri is saying that in real life there isn't always a moral, and if there is, it is a moral we create ourselves.
-Anna

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