Throughout Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies we see many, many dysfunctional marriages. In fact, we see more marriages that are falling apart than not. We first see a less than functional marriage in “A Temporary Matter”, the very first story. In “A Temporary Matter” Shukumar and Shoba’s broken relationship is put on display when they begin confessing things to each other when the power goes out. The couple’s marriage has been going downhill since the still birth of their baby, especially due to the fact that the husband wasn’t even there for the birth. At the end of the story the Shoba admits that she has plans to move out, implying the end of their marriage.
One of the strangest relationships we see is Mr. and Mrs. Das’. In this story, the title track as Mr. Mitchell would say, “Interpreter of Maladies”, not only do we see an unfaithful and unhealthy marriage, but we see Mrs. Das’ odd fixation on Mr. Kapasi. I interpreted her fixation to be a way to make Mr. Das jealous. Or maybe she’s just craving something new and interesting, and Mr. Kapasi fulfills that. Either way, I saw her detachment from her family very strange. The biggest relationship stumbling block we see in this story is definitely her child born from wedlock, Bobby. We see that this is clearly something that weighs very heavily on Mrs. Das, so much that she chooses to share this secret with Mr. Kapasi when the rest of her family is touring India. Mr. and Mrs. Das’ relationship is clearly strained/not there at all, and no matter what Mrs. Das chooses to do about Bobby (tell Mr. Das versus keep it a secret) it will continue to weigh heavily on their relationship and family.
We see this again in “Sexy”, a very familiar story about an affair between a young woman, Miranda, and an older man Dev. A love story that involves a married man can never be a healthy one. As most of these stories go, Miranda ends up leaving Dev, but not after numerous attempts to change herself for him (for example, learning Indian).
In “This Blessed House” we see an obviously different newly married/newly introduced couple, Sanjeev and Twinkle, yes, Twinkle, quarreling over multiple things. It begins as an argument over the Christian relics Twinkle begins to find in their new home. Twinkle sees it as a fun game, and doesn’t mind putting the figurines up in their home. Sanjeev on the other hand, is completely against these objects. Sanjeev’s family is still living in India, and he seems to have a more devout Hindu faith than Twinkle. Sanjeev doesn’t want the relics on display when he has his work friends over for a party, for he fears they will think he and Twinkle practice Christianity (which, admittedly, many guests do). During the party, which Sanjeev spent all morning preparing for, Twinkle quickly becomes the center of attention. This seems to greatly upset Sanjeev, especially since they’re his colleagues, and he planned the party. At the end of this story we’re left with Sanjeev carrying a large bust of Jesus Christ downstairs in front of all the party guests, and questions about the future of their marriage.
All of these stories have the same theme of a dysfunctional relationship. This is the majority of Lahiri’s stories so far. It makes me wonder if this was her intention, or if perhaps the stories just evolved like that. It’s an interesting way to connect all of these seemingly unconnected stories. I’m interested to see how Lahiri ends this collection of short stories.
