"The Third and Final Continent" by Jhumpa Lahiri

The Third and Final Continent is about an Indian man who left his home in Calcutta in order to make a better life for himself. He traveled to England for the first couple of years until his was told he must return to Calcutta for his arranged marriage to a woman named Mala. Soon after his marriage he accepted a job offered to him while he was in England at a library in Boston at MIT. He took it in order to support his new wife and himself and soon left for America where his new wife would soon follow. Being accustomed to the quiet of England, his first weeks in America were quite the culture shock. Everything was new to him: the food, the driving and roads, the rush everyone seemed to be in, and even more so the culture in itself. After spending a few weeks at the YMCA in the area of MIT he decides to rent a bedroom in the housing adds of the paper. For only $8 a week he could have a bedroom in the upstairs of an old woman's house. Over time, the young man becomes acquainted with his landlord and learns that she is over 1oo years old. This astounds him and he is even more amazed that she is left to live alone to take care of herself. Though he does not have to, the young man sits with the old woman, Mrs. Croft, every evening after work and they have a sort of routine that is repeated every time. Once she falls asleep, he retires to his room. He also never fails to treat the old woman with the utmost respect, enough so that Mrs. Croft refers to him as a "gentleman" to her daughter who visits every Sunday of the week. When it comes time for his wife to finally arrive in America when her passport and green card were ready, the young man informs the old woman as he pays her his last rent that he is moving. He finds a nice little and affordable apartment for him and his new wife to share. After she arrives, he discovers just how much Mala feels a stranger to him and it takes a while for him to get used to her. One evening he and his wife are walking and he takes her to the home of Mrs. Croft to show her where he first lived when he came to America. Mrs. Croft's daughter invites them in saying that her mother had slipped and asks if the would stay with her while she ran to the store. Mrs. Croft was still the "imperious" but respectable old woman he remembered. What he did not expect to discover from his visit with his old landlord was the growing affection for his wife. And with Mrs. Croft's approval, "She is a perfect lady!" the young man realizes he is lucky to have such a woman. In the end, the young couple were able to acclimate to their new home in America and most importantly find love and happiness in a marriage that started off as strangers. The couple were able to find "Home" on the third and final continent.