Task: Story Composition
Input (English): Fact1: Chand is young bride leaving home in Ludhiana India for Brampton Canada, Fact2: Rocky and very traditional family await arrival Brampton Canada, Fact3: wide-eyed optimism of hope at is tiny miracle times, Fact4: sister feels embarassment of living in same house with Baldev, Fact5: Hope comes in form of Rosa tough and savvy Jamaican woman and press
Output (English): Vibrant Chand is a young bride leaving her home in Ludhiana, Punjab, India, for Brampton, Ontario, Canada, where her husband Rocky and his very traditional family await her arrival. Everything is new and unfamiliar to Chand including the quiet and shy Rocky who she meets for the first time at the Arrivals level of Pearson Airport. Chand approaches her new life and land with equanimity and grace, and at times the wideeyed optimism of hope—her first snowfall is a tiny miracle of beauty, and the roar of Niagara Falls creates the excitement of new beginnings. But soon optimism turns to isolation as the family she has inherited struggles beneath the weight of unspoken words, their collective frustration becoming palpable. No one feels the pressure more than Rocky, weighed down by familial obligations. Maji, his controlling mother, won’t let him go; Papaji, is a sweet but ineffectual father; Aman, his sister, who feels the embarassment of living in the same house with her unemployed husband Baldev, their teenaged son Jabir and younger daughter, Lovleen. All live with Rocky and Chand in a twobedroom house in the suburbs of Toronto. To make matters worse, Rocky is expected to find the money to bring more of his new extended family to Canada. Unable to express his anger, he finds other ways to release it and it’s Chand who bears the brunt of his repressed rage. Trapped in a world she cannot comprehend and unable to please her husband, Chand is desperate. Hope comes in the form of Rosa, a tough and savvy Jamaican woman who works alongside Chand in a factory where immigrant women from all over the world clean and press dirty hotel laundry. Rosa sees past the makeup that covers Chand’s bruised face. Realizing Chand has nowhere to turn, Rosa gives her a magical root advising her “to put it in whatever the bastard drinks.” The root is supposed to seduce the one who takes it, making them fall hopelessly in love with the person who gives it to them. Chand’s attempts with the magic root lead to surreal incidents and her life gradually begins to mirror an Indian fable involving a King Cobra. As the lines between fantasy and reality converge, Chand and Rocky come face to face with each other and themselves. Eventually, Chand comprehends all the surreal episodes in her life and upon separation from her husband decides to go back to India.