How we cite our quotes: (Abbreviated Title.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"Yes," Mrs. Sen replied. The mention of the word seemed to release something in her. She neatened the border of her sari where it rose diagonally across her chest. She, too, looked around the room, as if she noticed in the lampshades, in the teapot, in the shadows frozen on the carpet, something the rest of them could not. "Everything is there." (MS 7-11)
Clearly, Mrs. Sen had a more luxurious life in India. Missing all those things from her upper-class life in India makes immigrating to America, as the wife of a modestly-paid professor, especially difficult. Like Mr. Pirzada, this family experienced a drastic change in social class after immigration.
Quote #8
Sanjeev had found the house on his own before leaving for the wedding, for a good price, in a neighborhood with a fine school system. He was impressed by the elegant curved staircase with its wrought-iron banister, and the dark wooden wainscoting, and the solarium overlooking rhododendron bushes, and the solid brass 22, which also happened to be the date of his birth, nailed impressively to the vaguely Tudor façade. There were two working fireplaces, a two-car garage, and an attic suitable for converting into extra bedrooms if, the Realtor mentioned, the need should arise. (TBH 50)
This house is awesome. It's so "impressive" that Lahiri needs to use the word twice to describe it. Excessive? Maybe. The point seems to be that Sanjeev's "made it."
Quote #9
That morning in the storage room, Bibi wept. "She says I'm contagious, like the pox. She says I'll spoil the baby." She was breathing heavily, her pupils fixed to a peeling spot on the wall. "What will become of me?" There was still no response to the advertisement in the newspaper. "Is it not punishment enough that I bear this curse alone? Must I also be blamed for infecting another?" Dissent within the Haldar household grew. The wife, convinced that Bibi's presence would infect the unborn child, began to wrap woolen shawls around her tumid belly. In the bathroom Bibi was given separate soaps and towels. According to the scullery maid, Bibi's plates were not washed with the others. (TBH 22)
This is about as close as Lahiri gets to describing someone who's "untouchable." Bibi isn't actually a member of the minority group typically seen as "untouchable" (the lowest social caste). But her illness makes her more or less untouchable, and that makes the whole "treatment" of Bibi seem even more unfair and cruel.