SelaQui World School

Summer Reading
Assignment-1
Subject: ENGLISH A1 2008-2009
RACHIT GOEL ENGLISH: SUMMER READING ASSIGNMENT 17-06-2008
JHUMPA LAHIRI: INTERPRETER OF MALADIES

JHUMPA LAHIRI: m

p
INTERPRETER OF MALADIES
i
Jhumpa Lahiri’s collection of short stories- Interpreter of Maladies- is a throwback to
l
this ancient art of storytelling, skilfully nourished by great masters. The Pulitzer
e
Prize winning volume of nine short stories, Interpreter of Maladies (2000) details the
d
experiences of both first and second- generation Indian immigrants. Portraying

the Indian culture and heritage, she explores the themes of emotional struggles of love,
b
communication barriers, incompatible relationships, the East-West cultural
y
distinctions, isolation and dislocation. The nine stories explore different aspects of
:

human emotions. The book is a compilation R of various stories reflecting the lives of a
a
few ordinary Indian people, struggling to cope with the world around them and the
c
world inside them. Born to Indian parents, and brought up largely in the U.S, Lahiri
h
negotiates the dilemmas of cultural spaces lying across the continents with master’s
i
touch. She has been the first American of Indian origin to have won the Pulitzer Prize
t
for the first ever anthology of her writings. The stories in Interpreter of Maladies

feature many recurring themes and situations, including:

G
Interactions between Indian immigrants and White Americans.
o
Various relationships are explored: husband/wife, married/unmarried lovers,
e
tour guide/ travellers, babysitter/mother/child.
l
The home life of young, dissatisfied Indian or American-Indian couples.
I
Role of one’s nationality in a foreign or adopted country.
B

2 -
RACHIT GOEL ENGLISH: SUMMER READING ASSIGNMENT 17-06-2008
JHUMPA LAHIRI: INTERPRETER OF MALADIES

The stories in Interpreter of Maladies are fraught with ideas and tensions. Now I would like

to reflect upon the stories individually.

“A Temporary Matter” is the story which heads us out in Jhumpa Lahiri’s world of

Interpreter of Maladies. This story shows the cold and harsh realities of the humanity. At the

beginning I had the idea that Lahiri made this story into a classic Indian one which is

seemingly predictable, where a boy marries a girl, boy works and earns, and wife cooks and

they live happily ever after. This is not a typical Indian story as a matter of fact it’s quite the

contradictory. Here, Sukumar and his wife Shoba, a couple, commits to spending their life

together, and find them unable to even utter a word with each other. Yet it seems to be a

common sort of marital strife. Lahiri must have created this story with a very down to earth

and realistic state of mind. The setting she shows was integral to the plot and the characters of

the story.

“When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine” examines the differences between Pakistan and

the U.S, through a way a family lives and dines with Mr. Pirzada. This story is told from the

perspective of a ten year old child, Lilia, this story is based upon the time of Indo-Pak

conflict in 1971.

“Interpreter of Maladies” is a story which talks of a married couple with their three

children visiting their homeland India to their parents and to the Sun Temple at Konark.

According to me, this is the best account of this anthology. This story indirectly relates to the

first story, A Temporary Matter, because in this case also, Mina Das does not feel affection for

her spouse. In this story, Mina acquaints with the interpreter of diseases, Mr. Kapasi, their

tour guide, her secret which she has concealed in her heart from everyone because she

seemed to have trusted him and would like to have her grievances interpreted by him. Trust

dramatises a major role in this story.

“Mrs. Sen” is a story of a professor’s spouse Mrs. Sen who has to become skilled at

driving so that she can keep her job as a baby sitter to 11-year old Elliot. She takes up this job

3
RACHIT GOEL ENGLISH: SUMMER READING ASSIGNMENT 17-06-2008
JHUMPA LAHIRI: INTERPRETER OF MALADIES

not for money, but for killing time. She shares her Indian accounts and recollections with

Elliot with a great vitality.

“Sexy” is a story of an American Indian girl, Miranda, who falls in love with a

married Bengali, Dev, unaware of his marital status. Miranda is entitled ‘SEXY’ by Dev, and

Rohin, her Indian friend’s cousin’s child. But to Rohin, it means ‘loving someone you don’t

know’. Miranda realises that is precisely what she did.

“A Real Durwan” is the story of Boori Ma, a sweeper of the stairwell in an old

building in Calcutta, who was deported to Calcutta after partition. In the end of the story the

residents of the building chuck Boori Ma out of the building after a thievery suspicion.

“The Blessed House” is the story of a young Asian couple. Sanjeev and Twinkle, who

have just started their married life in the United States. The tenderness of love can be

explored in this story. Sanjeev doubts if he truly loves his spouse or not. He hated things just

because Twinkle likes them.

“The Treatment of Bibi Haldar” is a story regarding a woman, Bibi Haldar, who has

lived her entire life in desolation. She found herself stricken to a grave syndrome but in the

end she somehow gets pregnant, delivers a baby and her ailment is healed.

“The Third and the Final Continent” is a story of an Indian immigrant who recalls his

first few weeks in U.S, thirty years ago. He rents a room owned by a 103 year old widow,

Mrs. Croft. After meeting his wife Mala wearing a sari, Mrs. Croft calls her a perfect lady.

This story encloses moving pictures of life.

Through this, I wrap up concluding that Jhumpa Lahiri’s stories are endowed with a

strong sense of identity to the narrator and their Diaspora experiences.