The ending of part two of Unaccustomed Earth left me with a bitter taste in my mouth, as I'm sure it did to many other readers. Part two chronicles the lives and relationship of Hema and Kaushik, two Indian-Americans who had grown up together but then split apart as they went off to college and got careers. After years of separation, Hema and Kaushik are finally reunited in Italy, by pure coincidence. They spend the next few weeks traveling the countryside and slowly falling more and more in love with each other. But, the problem lies in that Kaushik will be moving to Hong Kong soon and oh yeah, Hema is supposed to get married to some guy she doesn't even like.
Faced with the idea of losing Hema, Kaushik asks her to travel to Hong Kong with him and break up with the other guy in order to continue their own future. To every reader's surprise, Hema says no. At this point I thought to myself, 'What the hell is Lahiri doing?'. After this, Kaushik goes on vacation to Thailand, where he is killed by a tsunami. At this point I was furious with Jhumpa Lahiri. She had created the perfect arc for Kaushik and Hema to get together and get married and live happily ever after.
I'm sure there is a reason that Lahiri chose to end Kaushik and Hema's story in this manner; after all she is the author and I am just the reader. That being said, I think that many readers including myself would have been much more satisfied had they gotten back together. After decades of separation and lost feelings, Kaushik and Hema find each other by coincidence in Italy but Lahiri could not allow them to get back together.
Had I been the author, Hema would've ran out of the airport before boarding the plane, realizing the awful mistake she had made. Kaushik would have accepted her back and they would have traveled on vacation to Thailand together. However, Hema would have been more observant of the weather and they made it safely inland before the tsunami hit. They would have then traveled to Hong Kong and raised a family there with the money from Kaushik's new editor job. Kaushik would one day return home and apologize to his father and Chitra for how difficult he had been earlier in life and that he had found happiness with Hema. The end.
Although I respect Lahiri for being adventurous and not taking the predictable route in the ending of her book, I felt very dissatisfied as a reader. As the reader, you are truly rooting for Hema and Kaushik to get back together and are devastated when it doesn't happen that way.
I completely agree with your views on the ending of this story. It seems as though Lahiri purposefully wanted us to believe that their was hope for the star-crossed lovers, but then just took an unexpected turn for the worst. I personally hated the ending of this story especially because of Lahiri lined up the stars so perfectly for Hema and Kaushik with their "coincidental" meeting in Italy. Lahiri had every opportunity to give Kaushik and Hema a chance, but instead she let Kaushik drown in a tsunami. I agree with your choice of ending, where you state that you would have written in the ending that Hema ran off the plane to Kaushik and they would have traveled around the world to Thailand and Hong Kong together. I personally would not have even minded if once in Thailand they were both killed by the Tsunami because at least then they got to experience a life together and then in their end; their death's would be a sign of their eternal love, with their souls happily together in the afterlife. To me as a reader, that would have been a much more satisfying ending than Kaushik and Hema going their separate ways.
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