WHY AMERICA?
WHAT MALI’S PLANS ARE?
The title “Why America?” clearly indicates that Jagan won’t understand Mali’s decision to leave India.
He’ll probably be taken aback and try to prevent his son from leaving India.
We can suppose that he’ll do everything he can to talk Mali out of leaving (=to convince Mali not to leave).
Jagan is an elderly man who probably resents being left alone. He may worry about his own future, without his son to take care of him in his later years. American and Indian societies are poles apart and Jagan fears Mali will be an outcast (=a misfit) and won’t be happy in America.

THE TEXT
The story is set in a small town in India. The three main characters are an elderly shopkeeper, Jagan, his cousin, a college teacher, and Mali, Jagan’s son, a twenty-year-old arts student who is mentioned in the text but not actually present.
At the beginning of the text, Jagan learns from his cousin that Mali intends to leave India to continue his studies in America. Jagan is both shocked and petrified by the news because he can’t understand Mali’s reasons not only for leaving his country, but also for going to America.

WHY DOES MALI WANT TO GO TO AMERICA?
Mali’s first reason, which is mentioned in the text, is that there are far more opportunities for learning novel-writing and creative writing in America than in India. According to Jagan’s cousin, the United States is “the only country where they teach such things.” (l. 33).
However, we can easily imagine that there are deeper reasons (=motives) behind Mali’s decision. Mali is a young, modern man who has had to live with a traditional and old-fashioned father since he was born and who certainly dreams of breaking away from the stifling way of life imposed on him by his father and his country.
He must be fed up with having to comply with rules, customs and traditions which he thinks belong to the past and not to 21st century India. He probably yearns (=longs to broaden his horizons,