When Babli, embittered by the men in her life, and after losing hope of ever having the man she loves decides to have a baby alone, she breaks her fathers will. For in a traditional Hindu family the girl accepts the match set up by the father, but here, we read how she chooses her mate, loses him and then goes against her own values to have a child. it's the ultimate rebellion from the conventional ways and undermines the very conception of hindu family values as understood by the traditional Indians, and hence creates a conflict of conventional and modern ways and starts the debate of whether second and third generation immigrants will ever completely follow their own cultures as set forth by their parents. 5. The Gold-Legged Frog by Khamsing Srinawk

Passage: "You sure are lucky,' the words raised his spirits. He smiled a little before repeating expectantly, how was I lucky, how?"

The experiences people have in life are all a matter of perspective. The luck we perceive as good can be seen as bad luck if we have enough vision. The tale told by Khamsing Srinawk is one where various perspectives of life are seen. We read that Nak was a poor farmer...

He had five children and one day with two of the children he was out looking for frogs. He had already caught enough for the evenings meal but greedy for one last more he dug up the frog. He got the frog but his son got bitten by a snake. Then when he gets home he tries to get his son healed but does not have the time as he has to go out of town as per his chiefs orders. Then when he leaves, he gets the money he went out to get but on his return his son is dead. The irony is that the money he got from the government was for his 5 children and now he has only four.
Any parent would be heartbroken on a child's death but through the neighbors perspective Nak had been lucky. He had gotten the money before the government found out that one of his children was dead. The concepts of life and luck are based on the individual and that is what the author attempts to prove through the relation of the tale. Life is only as tragic as we perceive it for the changing facets create a sure knowledge of existence. The title again is an irony of the state of affairs for the frog for which Nak sacrificed his son was nothing like a 'gold legged frog'.