Interpreter Of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri

1. The Treatment of Bibi Haldar

Story of Bibi Haldar is one of deprivation - ailing with frequent seizures, death of parents, financial hardships, ostracism by relatives, social stigma, weak medical facilities, under-educated, dependent, etc cetera - which gets further magnified by the fact that she is a woman.

Essentially, story digs into maladies of a society that hinders human growth and development, esp in third world country lacking financial resources, decadent families, and state failures. Bibi is unfortunate to be have been trapped in this quagmire which leaves her desolate and ill.

However, hope comes in form of narrator(her neighbor) and her ilk, who contributes to her welfare purely out of altruism, helping Bibi to raise her bastard son and empowering her to run small scale business, which leads to The Treatment of Bibi Haldar.

2. When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dinner

Set in the backdrop of Bangladesh Liberation War, the story revolves around two characters - Mr Pirzada and Lilia. Mr Pirzada, a lecturer, is currently on government-sponsored research leave in US, leaving behind his wife and 7 girls in Dhaka. During his one year stay in US, his home country(then East Pakistan) descends into civil war. As a result, with dis-integrated postal lines and in absence of 21st century communication mediums, he loses touch with his family. Thus away and separated, he finds solace at house of Lilia's immigrant parents from Kolkata, who acquaints with him to mitigate their culturally-displaced feelings.

In their house, Mr. Pirzada's life and the happenings in Dhaka becomes basis for characterization of Lilia - a 10-year old girl, born and brought up in american milieu, acculturated away from her parent's home country(India). Themes underlying the story is presented in form of maturing of Lilia's understanding of issues of adult human life. These include : meaning of loss and separation, fleeting nature of identities, inequalities between first and third world, diverse ways of life, et cetera.

Given the little age, innocence of the child is vividly displayed, reminding me of naive(yet, puzzling to me) questions I used to ask my parents. But, by far, the most heart-warming depiction was one where Lilian secretively prays for Mr. Pirzada while eating his gifted candies, even as she avoid brushing to prevent rinsing out the prayer! I tried but I couldn't really recall a similar incident around same age! This is another facet that appears in the message delivered in the story - i.e. empathy ; It's an emotion that transcends age, even if not tapped pro-actively by us.

Finally, the story comes to an end as War is settled in favor of Bangladesh with support from India. And after one-year stay in US, Mr. Pirzada returns home and reunites with his family, and later sends back gratitude for comfort provided, just like India supported Bangladeshi refugees during the war.

3. A Real Durwan

A partition refugee, Boori Ma, works as sweeper in a lower middle-class building of Kolkata. In exchange for her back breaking work, this 60-year old poverty-stricken women is provided lodging, fuel, social belonging, et cetera. While she dutifully performs her daily chores of cleaning, she is prone to vocal litanies about her, false or truthful, affluent life in erstwhile East Pakistan. Bitterness derived from life-long loses, sorrows and seemingly unmet desires defines her tone & tenor in her dealings with building occupants. Instead of getting hurt, the latter are amused by her entertaining presence as well as her informal service as building gatekeeper(Durwan).

To this set up is introduced the elements of changing society : rising materialism and resultant insecurity/distrust, self-interested nature and jealousy, quest for upward mobility and social status, etc. Promotion in job results in higher income for, and spending by, one of the building occupant, which causes equivalent expenditure by others to keep up socially. As a result, building witnesses constant stream of renovators for refurbishing various apartments. During this process, theft take place in the building at hand of an unknown person. The blame for incident is put on the head of Boori Ma, who herself had suffered from robbery in the market earlier in the same day.

The story ends with Boori Ma and her belongings getting thrown out of building, even as its occupants starts to search for A Real Durwan. Frankly, this is one of the maladies that I couldn't interpret.

4. Sexy

Miranda is a 22-year old American woman working at public radio station in Boston. She comes across as taciturn, guileless, diffident, and amateur. She had moved to Boston from her home state of Michigan, where she had went to school and college. It seems to be a decision made from desire to find her own identity. Her social life is initially limited to a married co-worker, Laxmi. Her past romantic life is short and unfulfilled, which, combined with her youthfulness, single status and loneliness, predisposes her towards amatory relationship. This she finds in Dev, who is a married Bengali working in an investment bank in Boston. He typifies a man who has no qualms about infidelity and is shrewd enough to play right strings for fulfilling his carnal desires.

Story unfolds as an evolution of Miranda into understanding about her relationship with Dev and about it's consequences for Dev's wife and children. This self-awareness results from her interaction with 7-year old Rohin, Laxmi's nephew, whose Bengali father has left her Punjabi mum for a British women. While baby-sitting Rohin, she gets insight into his mother's grief and it's impact on his behavior. Though she always knew about her standing as mistress in Dev's life and had reconciled with unrequited love, Rohin succeeds in stirring her conscience. This happens when Rohin calls her 'sexy', which to him means 'loving someone you don't know'. Even though it stood in contrast to Dev's version, Miranda came to accept Rohin's perception of what it means to be "Sexy".

5. This Blessed House

This Blessed House is a story of the transition of Sanjeev(A 33-year old US immigrant, born and brought up in Kolkata, and an engineering graduate of MIT, now working at senior position in US firm) from a single, self willed, rational, career centric person, valuing hard work & related material rewards, to a married guy sharing home with Twinkle(27-year old, born and raised in California to immigrant Indian parents, and now pursuing masters in literary studies at Stanford), who, while lacking conventional skills of cooking/homemaking, is also unlike Sanjeev, with her ebullient, amiable, carefree, and unorganized life. Eventually, after some moments of doubts on his choice of partner, Sanjeev comes to accept a lesson my papa once told me, that it is nature's imperative that two persons bonded maritally will(or should) have complementary personalities for a successful marriage - i.e. Blessed House.

6. The Third and Final Continent.

With the core theme of distance and it's transition, The Third and Final Continent delves into notions of inter-generational changes, cross-cultural differences, gaps in human relationships, and into ideas of adaptation and progress. These subjects are explored via lives of various characters, prominently through unnamed narrator, and their inter-changes with each other.

First is distance in human relationships. Newly arranged-married couple had to adapt their lifestyles to accommodate each other. These separate, yet maritally bonded, persons transition from strangers to emotionally-linked happy duo in foreign land. Then, there is a Bengali mother whose widowhood drives her to insanity. On the contrary, we also discover American mother who strives to provide for her children after spousal death. Changing situations requiring adaptation to new contingencies, with some more successful in transition than others.

Situational changes can be culturally rooted as well. Indian immigrants into US undergoes shifts in their clothing, cuisine, language, values, et cetera. Narrator moves from his home country to UK and then to US while changing his living style to meet new standards. On other hand, we can also have a 103 year old Mrs Croft who depicts an era gone-by when behavioral norms were more strict and rigid. Cultural distance is too big to plug for her. It is also a case where inter-generalization adaptation is biologically restrained.

In the end, emphasis of story is on progress of humanity. Story of the narrator is that of any ordinary Indian youth striving to transform his/her life conditions. The distance traveled in the quest of that change is what life is about. Just like narrator, mrs croft, and, in general, we all discover at some time in our life, the distance we can travel can be bewilderingly splendid.