This essay will consist of a brief context of both the story and the authors and I will compare and contrast Indian and Nigerian culture and tradition, particularly examining the role and duty of women in within their family and community. The short story "A Smell of Kerosene" tells the story of a young woman named Gulleri, who lives with her husband Manak and his family. Gulleri is unable to bear a child and therefore is unable to produce a son, which is why Manak's mother makes him marry another woman while Gulleri is at the annual harvest fair in his hometown of Chamba. When Gulleri learns about Manak's new wife, he dips his clothes in kerosene and sets himself on fire. Author of, A Smell of Kerosene, Amrita Pritam, an Indian citizen in 1947, was famously known for writing about personal experiences and events that happened in India, so it is quite possible that she would have been an eyewitness to horrific scenes like that Gulleri story, so it is entirely appropriate that I should write such a story. Veronica's story is also about a young woman who lives with her family in a small village in Nigeria and her friend Okeke who leaves Nigeria to study in England. Ten years later he returns to find that Veronica is married, with a child and living in severe poverty. Okeke left Nigeria and returned three years later after the destruction of the civil war, where he met Veronica for the last time, Veronica died in Okeke's arms. The author Adewale Maja-Pearce was a Nigerian citizen, in fact his personal life is very much reflected in this story as he grew up in Lagos and studied in English universities. The saying "Women's place is in the kitchen", comes to mind when read...... in the center of the sheet ......on the current it symbolized the different paths that both will follow. The river was used again towards the end of the story where Okeke buries Veronica and says his final goodbyes to her. “After watching the stream flow,” this time the river represented the end of their friendship and the continuation of time after everything that happened between Okeke and Veronica. The continuation of life is not evident for Manak in "It Smells of Kerosene", his life ended the moment he found out that his wife had committed suicide due to fire, although he did not die physically he mentally followed in the footsteps of Guleri. He is so dead inside that not even a new life can revive his feelings, the baby is just a reminder of his guilt and the reason for Guleri's death and that's why he can't bear to hold the baby and why the baby metaphorically smells of kerosene.