Milstein grew up in a Jewish neighborhood in Montreal and Rohinton grew up in a middle-class neighborhood in India and immigrated to Canada as a young adult. Milstein grew up in a very ethnic neighborhood; his house was around the corner from a Chinese laundry. Wing Ling and his wife are both survivors of World War II and the Holocaust. With the death of most of the family, "an air of sadness...enveloped the place." (Milstein 150) His neighborhood was enveloped in the sights, sounds and smells of local Jewish vendors selling traditional Austrian delicacies. Milstein's essay reflects on his childhood, then compares it to his son's childhood. Realizing that his children walk to school is not as enriching as his. Mistry's essay traces his childhood and focuses on his relationship with his brother's friend. Growing up in a middle-class neighborhood in India, the narrator did not have access to all the luxuries that upper-class citizens would have. Growing up in a society where your friend belongs to a higher social class is not easy. They might go to school together but they eat lunch separately, and when his brother came home after playing with Jamshed he would get interrogations from their mother. Jamshed came from India's upper middle class society; he lived in a “collection of hyphenated sumptuousness.” (Mistry 153) The main difference between the three boys was economic class. It may not seem like much, however this class difference had a big impact on the brother's life. Small things like a CD soundtrack had great meaning to the brothers because they symbolized the cultural and social class differences that were occurring in India in the 1950s. The narrator's childhood had a great impact on his cultural identity; he grew up in a small social class, treated like a child whenever he was with his parents