A sudden rush of monkeys excites the children and Mr. Das takes pictures. Mrs. Das paints her fingernails and dismisses Tina when she insists on having her nails done too. She then complains to her husband for not getting an air-conditioned car. When asked, Mr. Kapasi says that being a tour guide is not boring, as he works in a doctor’s office the rest of the week. He works as an interpreter, translating the Gujurati spoken by patients. Mrs. Das declares the work romantic, and offers Mr. Kapasi a piece of gum. Their eyes meet in the rear-view mirror. The stage setting employed in each story differs and is highly apt to the story complementing the story and presenting the characters in a comprehensive way. The Temporary Matter, Mrs. Sen, Interpretation of Maladies etc. has stage setting which make the story realistic and not deviate the attention of the writer. This is an important aspect which can be understood in her works. Writing short stories is not easy. A novel is an easier literary form in a way - it allows you the space for character and plot development and gives you the space to slowly fall in love with it. Customs shared by Lilia and her parents are also shared by Mr. Pirzada. From Lilia’s perspective, the division of Pakistanis and Indians is arbitrary. When her father tells her that Mr. Pirzada is no longer Indian, she inspects him and his actions for clues of difference. This echoes her own relationship with her father, who worries that her American education is making her no longer Indian. However, America allows for Mr. Pirzada and Lilia’s father to dine together, worry together and laugh together. Assimilation is seen as both positive and negative.

Short story, on the other hand, is like literary speed dating; it only has so much time to set itself apart and make a somewhat decent expression. It's much easier for me to think of good novelists than good short story writers. Let's try - Hemingway, Poe, Bradbury, Chekhov, maybe a few more. Well, I guess Jhumpa Lahiri can join the exclusive club. Her novel The Namesake left me wanting more, but her short stories are very well-done. Apparently the Pulitzer people thought the same thing. The theme of cultural differences between Indians and Indian-Americans is another important component in this story. At first glance, the Das family appears to be Indian, but Mr. Kapasi knows them to be tourists. Their manner of dress and attitude give them away despite their skin tone. Mr. Kapasi is reminded of the televison show Dallas when his fares speak. Lahiri points out the guidebook held by Mr. Das labeled simply INDIA, suggesting he is looking for his own culture. Mrs. Das’s coolness towards her own children astonishes Mr. Kapasi. In this story, 11-year-old Eliot begins staying with Mrs. Sen—a university professor's wife—after school. The caretaker, Mrs. Sen, chops and prepares food as she tells Eliot stories of her past life in Calcutta, helping to craft her identity. Like "A Temporary Matter," this story is filled with lists of produce, catalogs of ingredients, and descriptions of recipes. Emphasis is placed on ingredients and the act of preparation. Other objects are emphasized as well, such as Mrs. Sen's colorful collection of saris from her native India. Much of the plot revolves around Mrs. Sen's tradition of purchasing fish from a local seafood market. This fish reminds Mrs. Sen of her home and holds great significance for her. However, reaching the seafood market requires driving, a skill that Mrs. Sen has not learned and resists learning. At the end of the story, Mrs. Sen attempts to drive to the market without her husband, and ends up in an automobile accident. Eliot soon stops staying with Mrs. Sen thereafter.In 2000 Jhumpa Lahiri became the first Indian American to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her short story collection The Interpreter of Maladies. In these nine poignant stories, Lahiri relates the Indian immigrant experience, connecting the tales and creating one voice for them. The stories shared a sadness of being separated from one's family by thousands of miles, yet also offered a glimmer of hope for their lives in India or the United States. The stories talk about how we get caught up in our lives and missing out on the genuine pleasures of life which we keep denying ourselves of, immigrants and culture mix, sentiments and emotions, our beliefs and unsettling human nature, marriages and relationships, memories and moments that matter, home and belongingness.

This book shines a light into the dark recesses of our lives. Into those places where we keep our darkest secrets, those places that even we may not be aware of. It shines a light, not a glaring white light from a bulb or a fluorescent, but rather a small light. A light from a candle that illuminates only the most necessary of things. Those things we often neglect when the bright light showcases everything around us. The weak candle-light casts a melancholy feeling only to these important things. But really, maybe that melancholy light is all we need to notice things that really matter. The story is told from the first person perspective of Lilia, primarily in her 10th year. Choosing to tell this story through the eyes of a child somewhat mitigates the heavy topic. The war between India and Pakistan in 1971 is witnessed from a distance both geographically and emotionally. While Lilia’s parents fret over a skirmish thousands of miles away, Lilia is more concerned with her own life. The candy that Mr. Pirzada lavishes on Lilia becomes a prayer for the safety of his daughters. Her awareness of the contrast between her situation and Mr. Pirzada’s daughters opens her eyes to the complicated political struggle on a personal level. In this case, the lessons learned by Lilia are the same learned by the reader but in a more literary, less didactic way. The beauty which lies in this story are that the protagonists are real people and not larger than life characters and hence the readers can identify with them and emphasize with their plight. The reader is engrossed in the storyline to such an extent that he no longer remains a reader but a mute spectator in the story travelling with the characters. Such is the strength of presentation of the writer. Some of the stories were brilliant, some were very good and only a couple were meh. This novel captures for me the right tension between foreignness and loneliness and those small wires, crumbs of connection that bridge people and cultures. Yeah, I dug it.

Introduction:

The characters in her stories dwell with a sense of dissatisfaction on account of their personal lives and experiences. The settings, narration, the mindsets of the characters and the interaction characters have with each other assist the readers in comprehending their plight and the futility of the situation. The Third and Final Continent: The narrator lives in India, then moves to London, then finally to America. The title of this story tells us that the narrator has lived in three different continents and chooses to stay in the third, North America.

The first example of symbolism in Interpreter of Maladies is Mr. Das’ camera. The camera Mr. Das carries with him represents the ignorance he has for the surrounding world, and the problems that his marriage faces. When Mrs. Das refuses to leave the car when they visit the monastic dwellings, Mr. Das tries to change her mind because they “could use one of these pictures for our Christmas card this year”. Mr. Das attempts to use the camera to construct an image of family life that does not exist in the reality his photographs seem to capture. His children and his wife are distant, but Mr. Das tries to put them in pictures that represent and depict affection. Whether an earnest attempt to create a family dynamic which does not exist or willful ignorance of his family’s unhappiness, Mr. Das’s insistence on using his camera underscores the underlying collapse of his seemingly happy family. The Interpreter of Maladies” is set in India, and the story’s main characters are all of Indian origin. While both the Das family and Mr. Kapasi share a certain cultural heritage, however, their experiences of the world are very different. The members of the Das family have all been born and raised in America, whereas Mr. Kapasi has lived and worked his entire life in India. Lahiri emphasizes the subsequent gulf between the affluent, very American Das family and their Indian-born tour guide to suggest a specific cultural tension between Indians and Indian-Americas, as well as the notion that identity in general goes beyond heritage. While one’s understanding of and response to the world is certainly, in part, the product of their cultural history, the story suggests that identity is above all shaped by one’s environment and social status.Nilanjana Sudeshna "Jhumpa" Lahiri was born in London and brought up in South Kingstown, Rhode Island. Brought up in America by a mother who wanted to raise her children to be Indian, she learned about her Bengali heritage from an early age.