Interpreter of Maladies

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Major Character List (by story)

Interpreter of Maladies

A Temporary Matter

• Shukumar and Shoba - a married couple—He is a graduate student completing a dissertation. She works as a textbook editor.

When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine

• Mr Pirzada- He is a visiting professor of botany at a Boston university originally from Daca (Bangladesh), Pakistan. His wife and seven daughters remain in Daca.
• Lilia- The young narrator of the story
• Lilia’s mother and father- They are friends of Mr. Pirzada. They are originally from India. Lilia’s father and Mr.Pirzada teach at the same university.

Interpreter of Maladies

• Mr. and Mrs. Das and children- Residents of New Jersey, the Das family is on vacation in India. Mr. Das is a science teacher.
• Mr. Kapasi- Works as an interpreter for a doctor and part-time tour guide for visitors to India. He is fluent in several languages.

A Real Durwan

• Bori Ma- She is the unofficial doorkeeper of a residential building.
• Residents of the flat where Bori Ma lives- They are both incredulous and entranced by Bori Ma’s stories of her former prosperous life.

Sexy

• Miranda- works as a phone solicitor for a public radio station. She is single and having an affair with a married man.
• Dev- Married man with whom Miranda is having an affair
• Laxmi – Miranda’s co-worker and friend
• Laxmi’s cousin- Lives in Montreal with her son Rohin. She is distraught after being abandoned by her husband for another woman
• Rohin- Laxmi’s cousin’s precocious son

Mrs. Sen's

• Mrs. Sen- A housewife who occasionally baby-sits
• Mr. Sen- A professor at a University
• Eliot- An eleven year old who is babysat by Mrs. Sen
• Eliot’s mother- a single mother

This Blessed House

• Sanjeev and Twinkle- Married couple who have recently moved into a home in Connecticut where the keep finding hidden Christian bric-a-brac.

The Treatment of Bibi Haldar

• Bibi- Suffers from mysterious ailment for which no cure has been found
• Haldar and his wife- Bibi’s cousin and his wife. She works in their cosmetics shop.
• Women of the neighborhood- Friends to Bibi who try to bring some happiness to her life

The Third and Final Continent

• The boarder- a recent immigrant to the United States from India who is employed at the MIT library
• Mrs. Croft- 103-year-old landlady
• Helen- Mrs Croft’s daughter
• Mala- The boarder’s new spouse who will soon join him in Massachusetts

Discussion Questions

Interpreter of Maladies

1. The idea of dislocation and displacement, it has been suggested, is a major theme in the short stories. Do you agree? What function does this theme play in the stories and how does it affect the characters.
2. Marriage and marital relationships are a recurring theme in the short stories. What aspects of these relationships are highlighted in the stories and why do you think they were chosen by the writer?
3. How is food and food preparation used to evoke a sense of time and place in the stories?
4. In “A Temporary matter,” the last line of the story is “they wept for the things they knew”. How is the subject of “knowing” and discovery both painful and empowering for the characters in Lahiri’s stories?
5. Lahiri said in an interview that “I always say that I feel that I've inherited a sense of that loss from my parents because it was so palpable all the time while I was growing up.” Is that sense of loss reflected in her characters and what is it that has been loss?
6. How are the characters in India and those in America different and how are they similar? What do you think Lahiri would have to say about what has been gained and what has been lost by the characters as they move from Indian to American and work to find their self-identity?
7. One critic wrote that some of Lahiri’s stories are bit contrived and moralistic. Do you think this is a fair criticism?
8. Another critic has written that “Lahiri's touch in these nine tales is delicate, but her observations remain damningly accurate, and her bittersweet stories are unhampered by nostalgia.” Do you agree with this assessment?
9. Many of the characters in the short stories– Bibi Haldar, Mrs. Sen, Mrs Croft and others–live lives that might be described as desolate. What has led to this desolation and what do you think the author is saying about the importance of relationships.
10. Can the stories’ endings be described as optimistic? Why or why not? How would you describe the tone of the endings?