Dusk over Atlantic Wharf

Nowadays a lot of media talks about integration and how immigrants handles to change from one culture to another. The reasons for emigration can be many things. For an example Afghanistan. Afghanistan is plagued by war. A lot of people from Afghanistan tries to emigrate from Afghanistan to the western countries, so they might get a better life. But not all emigrating people emigrates because of war. Some people does it because of love and marriage. Other people does it because their family told the to.
This very example happens in Dusk over Atlantic Wharf. Lata is an Indian woman, who comes from India. She emigrates from India to Wales to get married with Anuj. The Marriage is not just some ordinary marriage with love, moving together and then married by love. This marriage is arranged by the couples families. This tells that Latas father or mother might be the only one who have met Anuj and she have never met Anuj. If you do not know a person it is even harder to love them. But Latas father told her that he would the best for her and that she would learn to love him.
He also tells her that she will get a very good future if she marries Anuj.

Lata has only lived in Cardiff for 4 months and already finds the day dull. Therefor, Anuj decides to take her to the cinema. Anuj has found a Bollywood movie. On the way to the cinema Lata is getting scared by all the culture differences between Wales and India. Some girls outside a club is not dressed up and does not behave like Lata is used to in India. Lata gets indignant because she is not used to see anything like this. Anuj ignores her reaction, instead of telling her that it is the way some people dress in Cardiff. This shows that he does not notice what she see when they driving around Cardiff, even though he knows that she does not know all the cultural differences.

They get into the cinema and starts to watch the movie. Lata recognize most of the movie. Not because of the story, but because of the mutual culture between her and India. She also tells Anuj that they have t obuy a DVD player so she can watch her favorite Bollywood movies anytime she want to. All Anuj does is grunting. Anuj does not find this the least bit interesting. Another sign of his ignorant and indifference attitude on her. He does not give a thing about India or their culture.

“Lata sat in the car and burst into tears. (…) Anuj sat there, fiddling with the car keys. He looked away into the distance (…) “you alright?” he asked quietly. She patted his hand and replied, “Yeah, I'm alright, Let's go home.” ” (p. 10 ll. 145-150).

When Lata and Anuj leaves the cinema, Lata suddenly bursts into tears. Not because the movie might had been sad, but because she just realized that India is not her home any longer. Cardiff is her new home. Cardiff might be nice to some people, but for Lata it is too difficult for her to get used to. Even here Anuj does not care. Almost any other person would have tried to cheer her up, but Anuj tried to make her used to the culture by asking if she is alright. She answers that she is and right here she shows that even though she has not get used to the culture yet, she is ready to live with him in Cardiff.

“She walked to the window. The sky loomed large and grey over the chimney tops and television aerials. Lata missed the drama of colours played out in the sky. She observed it had been the same dull grey throughout the day. Just like the bed sheets back home – after they had come back from dhobi”. (p. 7, ll. 11-14).

This quote indicates her new reality. That she definitely does not like Wales. The weather acts like a metaphor. It is the inner thoughts and feelings about her new life in Wales. The gray colors indicates sorrow and homesickness.