Interpreter of Maladies

by Jhumpa Lahiri

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They were all like siblings, Mr. Kapasi thought as they passed a row of date trees. Mr. and Mrs. Das behaved like an older brother and sister, not parents. It seemed they were in charge of the children only for the day; it was hard to believe they were regularly responsible for anything other than themselves.

Mr. Kapasi, the story’s main character, observes Mr. and Mrs. Das, an Indian American couple for whom he is acting as a tour guide for the day. The Dases seem very young and self-absorbed; they are like older siblings to their own three children.

She would write to him, asking about his days interpreting at the doctor’s office, and he would respond eloquently. . . . In time she would reveal the disappointment of her marriage, and he his. In this way their friendship would grow, and flourish. . . . As his mind raced, Mr. Kapasi experienced a mild and pleasant shock. It was similar to a feeling he used to experience long ago when, after months of translating with the aid of a dictionary, he would finally read a passage from a French novel, or an Italian sonnet, and understand the words, one after another, unencumbered by his own efforts. In those moments Mr. Kapasi used to believe that all was right with the world, that all struggles were rewarded, that all of life’s mistakes made sense in the end. The promise that he would hear from Mrs. Das now filled him with the same belief.

Mr. Kapasi feels a connection with Mrs. Das and imagines developing a long-distance correspondence with her. Both of their marriages, he senses, are loveless, and perhaps exchanging letters with Mrs. Das would bring both love and meaning to his life. In his youth, Mr. Kapasi studied languages and literature, and thinking about beginning a “friendship” with Mrs. Das returns him to the sense of rightness and wholeness he used to experience in the midst of his studies, before his dull marriage, his disappointing job, and the death of his son.

About what I've just told you. About my secret, and about how terrible it makes me feel. I feel terrible looking at my children, and at Raj, always terrible. I have terrible urges, Mr. Kapasi, 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?

Mrs. Das tells Mr. Kapasi about her infidelity that led to the birth of one of her children. She tells Mr. Kapasi this secret because he is an “interpreter of maladies”; during the week, he works for a doctor as an interpreter, but he is powerless to really help people. He couldn’t prevent his own son’s death from typhoid. Mrs. Das, however, believes his job is “romantic” and wants him to help her feel better. She does not care about her marriage, and she wants to throw her children out of the window as if they are simply possessions weighing her down. She wants Mr. Kapasi to solve her problems, but he finds he cannot.

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