Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri -- Book Club Guide and Discussion Questions

Interpreter of Maladies ­ Jhumpa Lahiri1 Story #1: A Temporary Matter Shoba and Shukumar are informed their electricity will be cut at 8pm for the next 5 nights. Pg 1

We learn Shoba was pregnant and went into labor 3 weeks before her due date. Shukumar was at a conference at the time. Pg 2

Tension between the couple since they lost their child: “But nothing was pushing Shukumar.

Instead he thought of how he and Shoba had become experts at avoiding each other in their three­bedroom house, spending as much time on separate floors as possible.” Pg 4

“Shukumar moved her satchel and her sneakers to the side of the fridge. She wasn’t this way before. She used to put her coat on a hanger, her sneakers in the closet, and she paid bills as soon as they came. But now she treated the house as if it were a hotel. The fact that the yellow chintz armchair in the living room clashed with the blue­and­maroon Turkish carpet no longer bothered her.” Pg 6

Each night the couple spends time in separate rooms. Before bed, Shoba seeks Shukumar out.

He knows she forces herself to do this. Pg 8

With the electricity out, Shoba and Shukumar start telling each other one secret each night: “He wondered what Shoba would tell him in the dark. The worst possibilities had already run through his head. That she’d had an affair. That she didn’t respect him for being thirty­five and still a student. That she blamed him for being in Baltimore the way her mother did. But he knew those things weren’t true.” Pg16

Their final secrets: Shoba has been apartment hunting and is moving out. Shukumar met their baby boy. Pg 21 & 22

Story #2: When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine

A man named Mr. Pirzada comes to dine often with a young girl and her parents. Pg 23

The story is set during the civil war of Pakistan. Mr. Pirzada is from Dacca, capital of Bangladesh. Dacca had been fighting for autonomy from Pakistan. Pg 23

Her parents would search the university directory before each school year in search of other people from India. Pg 24

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Interpreter of Maladies ­ Houghton Mifflin Company ­ Published 2000 ­ 198 Pages

Our narrator, the young girl, and her father discuss Dacca: ““One moment we were free and then we were sliced up… like a pie. Hindus here. Muslims there. Dacca no longer belonged to us.” He told me that during partition Hindus and Muslims had set fire to each other’s homes. For many, the idea of eating in the other’s company was still unthinkable.”” Pg 25

““I noticed that there were two distinct parts to it, one much larger than the other, separated by an expanse of Indian territory; it was as if California and Connecticut constituted a nation apart from the U.S..””Our narrator discussing the geography of Pakistan. Pg 26

Our narrator discusses learning american history in school. Pg 27

Our narrator is in the library at school and finds a book about Pakistan. Her teacher tells her there’s no reason to read or consult it since it doesn’t relate to her report. Pg 33

Her parents and Mr. Pirzada would all eat together and then watch the news the entire night.

“Most of all I remember the three of them operating during that time as if they were a single person, sharing a single meal, a single body, a single silence, and a single fear.” Pg 41

Mr. Pirzada returns home after Dacca officially separates itself from Pakistan. He is reunited with his own family. Pg 41 & 42

Story #3: Interpreter of Maladies

Mr. and Mrs. Das are americans traveling with their children in India with a guide / driver Mr. Kapasi. Pg 43

Mr. Kapasi thinks to himself that the couple looks very young to have multiple children. “[Mr. Das] glanced up from his paperback tour book, which said “INDIA” in yellow letters and looked as if it had been published abroad. His voice, somehow tentative and a little shrill, sounded as though it had not yet settled into maturity.” Pg 44

Mrs. Kapasi is distant towards her children and husband. Her daughter asks her to also paint her nails and Mrs. Das tells her to leave her alone. Pg 48

Mr. Kapasi tells the Das family that he is an interpreter for a doctor. Mrs. Das is finally interested in the conversation and tells him his job is a big responsibility: “Mr. Kapasi had never thought of his job in such complimentary terms. To him it was a thankless occupation. He found nothing noble in interpreting people’s maladies, assiduously translating the symptoms of so many swollen bones, countless cramps of bellies and bowels, spots of people’s palms that changed color, shape, and size.” Pg 51

“He wondered if Mr. and Mrs. Das were a bad match, just as he and his wife were.” Pg 53

Mr. Kapasi and Mrs. Das continue talking. She asks for his address. He day dreams about what they will discuss in their letters and develops a crush. Pg 59

Mrs. Das tells Mr. Kapasi that her little boy isn’t Mr. Das’s son. She has kept that a secret for eight years and Mr. Kapasi is the first person she tells. Pg 62

“”I’ve told you because of your talents.”” Pg 65 Mrs. Das explains she tells Mr. Kapasi this secret because of his talents as an interpreter.

“”I feel terrible looking at my children, and at Rajm always terrible. I have terrible urges, Mr. Kapasi,m to throw things away. One day I had the urge to throw everything I own out the window, the television, the children, everything. Don’t you think it’s unhealthy?”” Pg 65

“”Is it really pain you feel, Mrs, Das, or is it guilt?”” Pg 66

Mrs. Das takes her hairbrush out of her purse and Mr. Kapasi’s address flies away. Only Mr. Kapasi notices. Pg 69

Story #4: A Real Durwan

Boori Ma sweeps the stairwell of an apartment building. “”Have I mentioned that I crossed the border with just two bracelets on my wrist? Yet there was a day when my feet touched nothing but marble. Believe me, don’t believe me, such comforts you can not even dream them.”” Pg 71

No one knows if there’s any truth to what Boori Ma tells about her past. Pg 71

Boori Ma complains of bug bites. Mrs. Dalal tells her it’s probably just prickly heat. Boori Ma tells her she knows what prickly heat feels like and that she hasn’t slept in many days. Pg 74

Mr. Dalal buys two sinks. One for their apartment and one for the common area of the building.

Resentment starts to build among the other wives ­ they too want a private sink in their home.

Pg 79

“”Are the Dalals the only ones who can improve the conditions of this building?”” Pg 79

The common area sink goes missing. Boori Ma is blamed for it. They claim she informed the robbers of the sink and she wa supposed to be guarding the gate. Pg 81

Boori Ma is tossed out. Pg 82

Story #5: Sexy

Miranda’s co­worker, Laxmi, tells her about her cousin’s relationship and his infidelity. “He say next to her on a plane, on a flight from Delhi to Montreal, and instead of flying home to his wife and son, he got off with the woman at Heathrow. He called his wife, and told her he’d had a conversation that changed his life, and that he needed time to figure things out. Laxmi’s cousin had taken her to bed.” Pg 83

Miranda is distracted since she’s entered into a new relationship with a married man named Dev. “Dev was bengali, too. At first Miranda thought it was a religion. But then he pointed it out to her, a place in India called Bengal, in a map printed in an issue of The Economist. He had brought the magazine specially to her apartment, for she did not own an atlas, or any other books with maps in them.” Pg 84

Dev’s wife is in India. “Somehow, without the wife there, it didn’t seem so wrong. At first Miranda and Dev spent every night together, almost.” Pg 88

Laxmi tells Miranda that this isn’t the first time he’s strayed. His wife is willing to forgive him for the sake of their son. Laxmi tells her that if her husband even looks at another woman, she would change the locks. Pg 91 & 92

Dev’s wife returns from India. He visits Miranda when he tells his wife he’s going for an afternoon run. Pg 95

“She knew they would never go to restaurants, where he would reach across a table and kiss her hand. They would meet in her apartment, on Sundays, he in his sweatpants, she in her jeans.” Pg 105

Miranda babysits. The young boy tells her she’s sexy. Miranda asks him what that means. “It means loving someone you don’t know.” Pg 107

Miranda makes an excuse the next Sunday as to why Dev cannot come over. And the following Sunday as well. Pg 109

Story #6: Mrs. Sen’s

Eliot’s mother is looking for a nanny for her son, Eliot. Previously, their nanny to to their house but Mrs. Sen wants Eliot to come to her place. Mrs. Sen is the wife of a professor. Pg 111

Mrs. Sen and her husband moved to America from India. Mrs. Sen on India: “Everything is there.” Pg 113

Mrs. Sen chops vegetables with a special blade she brought from India. “”Whenever there is a wedding in the family… or a large celebration of any kind, my mother sends out word in the evening for all the neighborhood women to bring blades just like this one, and then they sit in an enormous circle on the kilos of vegetables through the night.”” Pg 115

Mrs. Sen asks Eliot if she were to start screaming, would anyone come? In India, all you have to do is raise your voice and the whole neighborhood comes over. Pg 116

Mrs. Sen always prepares food for Eliot’s mother when she picks him up. “His mother nibbled Mrs. Sen’s concoctions with eyes cast upward, in search of an opinion. She kept her knees pressed together, the high heels she never removed pressed into the pear­colored carpet. “It’s delicious,” she would conclude, setting down the plate after a bite or two. Eliot knew she didn’t know like the tastes; she’d told him so once in the car. He also knew she didn’t eat lunch at work, because the first thing she did when they were back at the beach house was pour herself a glass of wine and eat bread and cheese, sometimes so much of it that she wasn’t hungry for the pizza they normally ordered for dinner.” Pg 118

Mrs. Sen is practicing for her driver’s exam. “”Mr. Sen says that once I receive my license, everything will improve. What do you think, Eliot? Will things improve?”” Pg 119

“”My sister has had a baby girl. By the time I see her, depending if Mr. Sen gets his tenure, she will be three years old. Her own aunt will be a stranger. If we sit side by side on a train she will not know my face.” She put away the letter, then placed a hand on Eliot’s head. “Do you miss your mother, Eliot, these afternoons with me?” The thought had never occurred to him.” Pg 122

Mrs. Sen calls every few days to find fresh fish. If she finds it, she asks it to be put on hold under Mr. Sen’s name and calls him to pick it up for her. Pg 124

“In November came a series of days when Mrs. Sen refused to practice driving. The blade never emerged from the cupboard, newspapers were not spread of the floor. She did not call the fish store, not did she thaw chicken.” Pg 127 & 128

Mrs. Sen wants fish and Mr. Sen is unavailable to help him pick it up. Mrs. Sen and Eliot drive to pick it up themselves and Mrs. Sen gets into a minor car accident. This is the last time Mrs. Sen watches Eliot. Pg 134

Story #7: This Blessed House

Sanjeev and Twinkle move into a new house and find Christian relics hidden all over the place.

Pg 136

Sanjeev and Twinkle discuss whether the hidden relics are an attempt to convert people.

Sanjeev said if it is, it’s working on Twinkle. Pg 138

“When he asked why she was in bed in the middle of the day she told him she was bored. He 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 her closet, with whatever magazine was lying around, with whatever song was on the radio ­­ content yet curious. And now all her curiosity centered around discovering the next treasure.” Pg 141

“She was like that, excited and delighted by little things, crossing her fingers before any remotely unpredictable event… it was a quality he did not understand. It made him feel stupid, as if the world contained hidden wonders he could not anticipate, or see.” Pg 142

Sanjeev and Twinkle are cooking and Twinkle isn’t using a recipe. Sanjeev thinks she should write it down in case she needs to make it again. She tells him she’ll remember. Pg 144

Sanjeev and Twinkle are hosting a housewarming party and invited Sanjeev’s coworkers from the university. Pg 145

“He thought with a flicker of regret of the snapshots his mother used to send him from Calcutta, of prospective brides who could sing and season lentils without consulting a cookbook.” Pg 146

The couple finds a biblical statue. Sanjeev said he is going to throw it away. Twinkle says no and that they co­own the property and the statue is part of their property.” Pg 149

The day of the party, Sanjeev’s co­workers love Twinkle and form a circle to be around her.

They love her Christian paraphernalia. Pg 152

Story #8: The Treatment of Bibi Haldar

Bibi Haldar has suffered from seizures like episodes for most of her 29 years of life. Pg 158

“It was there, after performing a series of blood tests, that the doctor in charge of Bibi’s case, exasperated, concluded that a marriage would cure her.” Pg 161

Bibi’s cousin and his wife take care, financially of Bibi. “”Besides, who would marry her? The girl knows next to nothing about anything, speaks backward, is practically thirty, can’t light a stove, can’t boil rice, can’t tell the difference between fennel and a cumin seed. Imagine her attempting to feed a man!” Pg 163

Bibi’s cousin caves and puts a ad in the town newspaper for her reading “Girl, unstable, height 152 centimeters, seeks husband.” Pg 165

The community steps in and stops shopping at Bibi’s cousin’s shop after Bibi is kicked out of their home because the cousin’s wife is expecting a baby and “”the medical risk is too great for an expectant mother to be in contact with an hysterical person””Pg 169

Bibi’s cousin goes out of business and moves away. Bibi retreated into a deep silence and kept to herself for many months. The community comes to see and her and finds her four months pregnant. She would not tell them who had done it. Bibi gives birth to a son and takes on her cousin’s inventory and shop as her own. The community buys from her. Pg 171­172

Story #9: The Third and Final Continent

The narrator receives a job offer from MIT in the library processing department. He prepares to move to another country again. Pg 173­174

“I went to Purity Supreme, wandering up and down the aisles, converting ounces to grams and comparing prices to things in England. In the end I bought a small carton of milk and a box of cornflakes. This was my first meal in America. I ate it at my desk. I preferred it to hamburgers or hot dogs, the only alternative I could afford in the coffee shops on Massachusetts Avenue, and besides, at the time I had yet to consume any beef. Even the simple chore of buying milk was new to me; in London, we’d had bottles delivered each morning to our door.” Pg 175

The narrator decides to stay at the YMCA for a bit and then finds a place to rent until his wife’s green card and passport were ready.

He ends up renting a place from a elderly woman who only rents to Harvard and MIT affiliates.

Pg 177

His landlady tells him there is a rule that no women may visit. He tells her not to worry, he is a married man. He has never said this to anyone before. Pg 181

His wife is Mala. “She was twenty­seven, an age when her parents had begun to fear that she would never marry, and so they were willing to ship their only child halfway across the world in order to save her from spinsterhood.” Pg 181

The landlady is upset when our narrator and her daughter are chatting one on one. “”It is improper for a lady and gentleman who are not married to one another to hold a private conversation without a chaperone.” Pg 186

“We had spent only a handful of days in each other’s company. And yet we were bound together; for six weeks she had worn an iron bangle on her wrist, and applied vermilion powder to the part in her hair, to signify to the world that she was a bride. In those six weeks I regarded her arrival as I would the arrival of a coming month, or season ­­ something inevitable, but meaningless at the time. So little did I know her that , while details of her face sometimes rose to my memory, I could not conjure up the whole of it.” Pg 189

“As strange as it seemed, I knew in my heart that one day her death would affect me, and stranger still, that mine would affect her.” Pg 195

The couple live in a suburb from Boston, are american citizens and have a son attending Harvard many, many years later. They drive to Cambridge often so he can speak in Bengali and eat their cuisine since the couple is worried he’ll stop doing those things once they’re gone. Pg 197

“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.” Pg 198

Discussion Questions 1) Does Lahiri touch on societal differences (individualized communities versus collective communities) when discussing India and America? Which stories and where does this come up?

2) Discuss how relationships and partnerships are portrayed in each of the stories.

3) Discuss how communities are portrayed in each of the stories.

4) In “The Treatment of Bibi Haldar”, Bibi is blamed when her cousin and his wife’s child has a fever. Discuss “blame” and where blame can be found in Lahiri’s other stories.

5) In “This Blessed House” Sanjeev finds Twinkle’s delight in the Christian objects found in their home both frustrating and inappropriate. Why do you think he reacts so strongly?

6) The narrator of “The Third and Final Continent” and Mrs. Croft follow a pattern for six weeks. The piano bench ritual is one of many routines or rituals in Lahiri’s collection.

What other rituals or routines do you find in her stories?

7) How is the couple’s sense of alienation and lack of communication conveyed by their food habits in “A Temporary Matter”?

8) Lahiri has said, "As a storyteller, I'm aware that there are limitations in communication."

What importance in the stories do miscommunication and unexpressed feelings have?

9) In "Interpreter of Maladies," Mr. Kapasi finds it hard to believe of Mr. and Mrs. Das that "they were regularly responsible for anything other than themselves." What instances of selfishness or self­centeredness do you find in these stories?

Awards • Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction • Winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award • The New Yorker's Best Debut of the Year • Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize • American Academy of Arts and Letters • Addison M. Metcalf Award Winner