Immigrants
One exemplary theme that can be found in Tishani Doshi's poems is a theme that focuses on immigrants. Drawing on from her own life, as her mother was an immigrant from Wales and Doshi herself moved to the United States to pursue her education, Doshi is able to weave together a string a poems that effectively describe the struggles and hardships of immigrants and their families, as well as their cultural differences that they must overcome. In her poem "The Immigrant's Song," the main theme of the entire poem is immigrants. Doshi talks about the struggles of immigrants, such as lack of financial resources and family strife. She also talks about their cultural differences, such as "our mothers' headscarves hung like white flags."
Hardship
Throughout her poems, Doshi often alludes to or directly mentions hardships and struggles that individuals or communities might face. This is a central theme to her work because she can focus on the hardship these people faced and then write an elaborate story to describe how they overcame or did not overcome the obstacles in their path. One example of this theme showing itself is in the lines "Let us not speak of men, stolen from their beds at night." This quote focuses on the hardships these families face as they are caught up in local violence. Another example of the theme of hardships presenting itself in Doshi's poems is when she says "mothers in Madras were mining the Marina for missing children." These mothers have lost their children, which would be an emotional and psychological blow to any mother, and now have to desperately look for them without any hint if they are still living or not.
India
India is an integral part of Tishani Doshi's identity, and she translates this fundamental part of her identity into a theme in most of her novels. As has been stated before, Tishani Doshi was born in Madras, India to a father from Gujarat and as a result has completely embroiled herself in the culture, language, and religions of her home country. Doshi has also represented her country in numerous ways through her literary work such as by winning the All India Poetry Competition and being put on the list for Hindu Best Fiction Award. A primary instance of when we see this theme take shape is when she refers to Madras in her poem "The Day We Went to the Sea." The setting of the poem is in India and the protagonists of the poem are all Indian. Furthermore, she references the theme of India by talking about a temple that was present nearby. Later, we can see Doshi use this theme of India in her poem "Immigrant's Song." In this poem, there are a few lines which talk about certain aspects of Indian culture, such as the fact that the mothers of the community had headscarves.
