Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

Ref: Jhumpa Lahiri (1999). Interpreter of Maladies. Houghton Mifflin Company. 

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Summary

  • The Interpreter of Maladies is nine separate short emotional stories highlighting the complexities of relationships, immigration, love, loss, hardship, and more.

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 A Temporary Matter

  • Following the loss of their fetus, born stillborn, husband and wife, Shukumar and Shoba who live together in Boston become increasingly estranged. Despite a declining relationship, they re-create their fondest memories and tell each other their deepest truths over candlelight for an hour each evening while a local electrical utility works on the power grid. Shukumar’s hope of re-invigorating their relationship is ended one evening when Shoba tells him she’s renting an apartment and needs time apart.

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When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine

  • It’s 1971 and Mr. Pirzada works in Boston as a teacher while his family- a wife and four girls- live at home in E. Pakistan. Mr. Pirzada befriends a local Hindu family where he dines nightly and, after dinner, follows the ever-disheartening news of the Bangladesh Liberation War. Increasingly concerned about the fate of his family at home, Mr. Pirzada eventually returns to the newly formed country of Bangladesh where he finds them alive and well.

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Interpreter of Maladies

  • Mr. Kapasi is a tour guide in Konarak, India, and, in his spare time, a language interpreter at a local hospital (an interpreter of maladies). One day he provides a tour to the Das Family- Mr. Das, Mrs. Das, and their three children- two boys and girl. Mr. Kapasi befriends the family and envisions a romantic future with Mrs. Das, even passing his address to her, for the purpose of sharing letters and pictures. Mrs. Das confides in Mr. Kapasi that she has cheated on Mr. Das and seeks advice. Mr. Kapasi realizes that she sees him as a father figure and confidant, and not as a romantic partner. On the return, she inadvertently loses the address and Mr. Kapasi’s hope of anything closer fades away as the paper with his address is lost to the wind.

  • “The wheels are supposed to symbolize the wheel of life. They depict the cycle of creation, preservation, and achievement of realization. Each wheel is divided into eight thick and thin spokes, dividing the day into eight equal parts. The rims are carved with designs of birds and animals, whereas the medallions in the spokes are carved with women in luxurious poses, largely erotic in nature.”

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A Real Durwan

  • Boori Ma is an impoverished 64-year-old stair sweeper who helps monitor the people coming in and out of a small apartment complex in Calcutta. Two of the residents, Mr. and Mrs. Dalal, purchase a sink for themselves and another for the complex. This luxury motivates the complexes other residents to install similar luxuries. Workers begin coming and going and while Boori Ma is out one day, robbers break into the compound and steal many luxuries. The residents blame Boori Ma and she is kicked out of the building.

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Sexy

  • Laxmi confides in her friend, Miranda, that her cousin’s husband has fallen in love with another woman. Miranda herself is engaged in an affair with a married man. On one date, the man tells Miranda she’s sexy; words Miranda had never heard from a man before. Their early romantic relationship becomes a weekly affair. Despite her love for him, she decides against pursuing the affair after the young child of Laxmi’s cousin calls her sexy- the same words that the child’s father had used to describe his new lover. The word forces Miranda to confront what the relationship really is.

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Mrs. Sen’s

  • Indian Immigrants Mr. and Mrs. Sen live in Boston where Mr. Sen is a teacher while his wife remains at home. Mrs. Sen becomes the caretaker for a local child, Eliot. Mrs. Sen becomes increasingly weary of her new life outside Calcutta where, specifically, she misses the fish meals she would eat every day at home. While learning to drive a car, Mrs. Sen is involved in a small accident while driving to the fish market with Eliot. As a result, Eliot’s mother decides he no longer requires a caretaker and can remain home by his self after school.

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This Blessed House

  • Indian immigrants and husband-wife Sanjeev and Twinkle purchase a new home in Boston. They begin finding various Christian paraphernalia all over the home, which excites Twinkle but irritates Sanjeev, because of his Hindu upbringing. The two are in an arranged marriage and new to one another and the difference of opinion on the Christian items pushes the two apart- Twinkle wants to proudly display the pictures and artifacts while Sanjeev wants to discard of it all.

  • “Though he abandoned the argument, he knew for a fact that she didn't spend all day at her desk; just that afternoon, when he got back from a run, he found her inexplicably in bed, reading. When he asked why she was in bed in the middle of the day she told him she was bored. He had wanted to say to her then, You could unpack some boxes. You could sweep the attic. You could retouch the paint on the bathroom windowsill, and after you do it you could warn me so that I don't put my watch on it. They didn't bother her, these scattered, unsettled matters. She seemed content with whatever clothes she found at the front of the closet, with whatever magazine was lying around, with whatever song was on the radio - content yet curious. And now all of her curiosity centered around discovering the next treasure.”

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The Treatment of Bibi Haldar

  • Bibi Haldar is a 26-year-old epileptic girl who lives with her brother at his small shop in Calcutta. The family tries to marry Bibi off, but no one will take her. Bib’s brother’s wife becomes pregnant and believes that Bibi’s epilepsy will impact the fetus. Bibi is increasingly pushed out of the house and isolated by the family and her negative treatment causes the local community to stop supporting the store. The family eventually leaves Bibi behind with 300 rupees. Bibi isolates herself and at some point in her isolation she is raped. She gives birth to a small boy and uses the rupees to stock her brother’s fading shop, making enough to raise herself and her young child.

  • “Her soliloquies mawkish, her sentiments maudlin, malaise dripped like a fever from her pores.”

  • "GIRL, UNSTABLE, HEIGHT 152 CENTIMETRES, SEEKS - HUSBAND."

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The Third and Final Continent

  • An immigrant man moves from Calcutta to London, where he lives for several months before learning he has been accepted for a job at MIT in Boston. His family arranges a marriage for him and enroute Boston he is wed in India. His new wife, Mala, remains behind while he prepares for their life together in Boston. He interviews with a 103-year-old woman named Mrs. Croft, whom he pays $8 rent per week to. Every time he comes home, she says to him- “There is an American Flag on the Moon” to which he shouts- “Splendid!” Eventually he moves into a larger house with his new, very estranged wife, Mala, fresh from Calcutta. One evening they visit Mrs. Croft, who has a broken pelvis due to a bad fall. Mrs. Croft informs him that she called the police after falling, stating “what do you say to that boy?” to which he answers “Splendid!” It’s the first smile he and Mala share. Mrs. Croft later dies of her age while the couple have a child and grow old in Boston.

  • “I remind myself that he (my child) has a father who is still living, a mother who is happy and strong. Whenever he is discouraged, I tell him that if I can survive on three continents, then there is no obstacle he cannot conquer. While the astronauts, heroes forever, spent mere hours on the moon, I have remained in this new world for nearly thirty years. I know that my achievement is quite ordinary. I am not the only man to seek his fortune far from home, and certainly I am not the first. Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept. As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination.”

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Chronology

  • 1243-1255: The temple of Konarak is constructed with the efforts of 1200 artisans under the direction of Ganga dynasty King Narasimhadeva to commemorate his victory against the Muslim army (Interpreter of Maladies).

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