Orbiting by Bharoti Mukherjee

I really enjoyed the short story "Orbiting." Perhaps it was because it was very accessible and easily understood, but I also thought it was rather entertaining. The family dynamic in the story reminds me of the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding. The parents in the movie are pushing their daughter to become successful and find a "suitable" husband as soon as possible. The parents in the movie respond to the daughter's American boyfriend in a very stand-offish way. Rindy's parents respond in a similar way to Ro and his distinct Afghanistan characteristics. Rindy's father expects Ro to enjoy drinking with the boys and watching sports, but these are both very foreign ideas to Ro. He had to fight for his life just to get out of Afghanistan and safely to America. It is very petty how Rindy's father judges him for not possessing these essential "male" characteristics when Ro has had to become more of a man than he is just to survive. Rindy's father's definition of torture was sitting in an office for thirty something years. Separate culture's definitions of masculinity are contrasted in this way. One line that again contrasts the different cultures and illustrates just how American Rindy is says, "When I think of Abdul, I think of a giant black man with goggles on, running down a court (pg. 65). It is funny how the first thing that comes to Rindy's mind is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the NBA's all-time leading scorer. At the end of the story, Rindy is in complete bliss when she realizes just how much she loves Ro. I am confused as to if this is really love because during the entire story she is referencing an ex-boyfriend, Vic. Vic seems to be the ideal boyfriend that Rindy's parents would love and approve of. Ro on the other hand is a complete 360 compared to Vic. As for the stories name-sake, Orbiting is mentioned at least twice in the play. However, I am unsure as to what the significance is. The first line that alludes to it is when Rindy is introducing Vic to the reader and says, "Who is he initiating now into the wonders of his inner space" (pg. 57). Another instance is on page 73 when Ro says, "For six days I orbit one international airport to another." I'm interested to hear the discussion in class as to what the title's significance is.

VOCABULARY:
Calabrian: A region in southern Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of the Italian peninsula. It is separated from Sicily by the strait of Messina. 
King Cotton: song in which American military marches to