How we cite our quotes: (Abbreviated Title.Paragraph)
Quote #1
When the cab pulled away that morning for the airport, Shoba stood waving good-bye in her robe, with one arm resting on the mound of her belly as if it were a perfectly natural part of her body. Each time he thought of that moment, the last moment he saw Shoba pregnant, it was the cab he remembered most, a station wagon, painted red with blue lettering. It was cavernous compared to their own car. Although Shukumar was six feet tall, with hands too big ever to rest comfortably in the pockets of his jeans, he felt dwarfed in the back seat. (ATM 8-9)
This is one of the last (if not the last) happy memories Shukumar has of Shoba and him, because Shoba is still pregnant. It's a vivid memory he returns to often. Side note: we think it's pretty cool of Lahiri to show how comfortable Shoba is in her totally huge, pregnant self compared to how insecure and uncomfortable Shukumar is in his body.
Quote #2
He had held his son, who had known life only within her, against his chest in a darkened room in an unknown wing of the hospital. He had held him until a nurse knocked and took him away, and he promised himself that day that he would never tell Shoba, because he still loved her then, and it was the one thing in her life that she had wanted to be a surprise. (ATM 103)
What's really cruel about this memory? It's Shukumar's painful memory, and he eventually forces Shoba to share it with him.
Quote #3
I have no memory of his first visit, or of his second or his third, but by the end of September I had grown so accustomed to Mr. Pirzada's presence in our living room that one evening, as I was dropping ice cubes into the water pitcher, I asked my mother to hand me a fourth glass from a cupboard still out of my reach. (WMPCTD 4)
This quote reveals how memories are often created in childhood. Who says kids remember everything at first sight? Try repetition instead, lots of repetition.