Jhumla Lahiri's 'Interpreter Of Maladies'

It is an undeniable fact that family is the base of creating a society and every single person’s dreams begins from a family. It lets every individual to look for a dream, pursue and then to achieve it with full motivation and inspiration. So, once can eagerly claim that a place where one finds love, prosperity and calmness is known as family. A place where mother’s unlimited love, and a father’s unconstrained support is given to their children. But, being a part of this group does not always ensure prosperity; as noticed in the story narrated by Jhumla Lahiri, the “Interpreter of Maladies”. In this story, Miss Jhumla Lahiri narrates the fact about a family who are basically from Bengal of India but has long lived and grown up in New Jersey, America. They are the Das Family. They consist of Mr. Das, Mrs. Das (Mina Das) and their siblings Ronny, Tina and Bobby. Meanwhile, living in a total isolation and emotionally disconnected relationship within their family. Mr. Das is a middle school teacher in and her wife, Miss Mina Das, an egotistical woman who does not much care about her children and husband. She hides a secret where Bobby is not Mr. Das’s son when she has had an affair with Das’s friend. They travel back to their ancestral state, Bengal every two years. And there they meet an interpreter named Mr. Kapasi as their travel guide in India who is also suffering from relationship issues.
At the beginning of the story, while on their way to visit the Sun Temple in Konarak. Their quarrel begins at the very beginning of the story for
who to take Tina to the toilet as the first proof of their unhealthy relationship. Here, Mrs. Das recklessly walks with Tina to the toilet after Mr. Das argues that “he had already helped her the last time when she had to take bath. Here, Mrs. Das is not willing to take upon her responsibilities as a mother by not being affectionate towards Tina. She does not bother to take her hand, and being totally separated from her which is a sign of isolation and emotional distinction among them. Further, Mr. Das sees that Ronny runs towards the goat and prevents to intervene by saying “Bobby, make sure that our brother does not do anything stupid” (399). This also shows Mr. Das’s emotional distinction towards his child whom he does not even know isn’t his son. Mr. Kapasi notices their rude behaviors towards each other when Mr. Das talks to his children by taking his wife’s first name instead of calling her a mom. This is counted as highly unethical in a strong family relationship. Children are to be taught to call their mother as mom as a respect to her. As their travel towards the Temple continues, Mr. Das and Mrs. Das continue to neglect each other and their children such as the woman being busy with her own puffed rice unwilling to share with the siblings (400). And the man; reading the travel guide book rejecting the idea that any of them could play with the car’s door lock and might get hurt by falling off the car. Moreover, at some place, Mrs. Das takes out her nail polish from her straw bag and begins to polish her nails. Tina, as a child girl, heavily in need of affection from her parents especially mother, gets passionate about getting her nails also polished but her mother quiets her by saying “leave me alone” (401) and continues being busy with herself. Tina feels tremendously depressed and begins to play with her doll that she was carrying, making no more interactions with her egotistical mother.
Finally, the unhealthy relationship of parents have great impact not only on their own marriage but also on children’s behaviors and growth as was observed in the story of the interpreter of Maladies, causing the wife to have affair other than her husband resulting in a bastard child.
In addition to that, children can also suffer from great psychological disturbance such Tina playing with her soft doll knowing that it obeys to her
wills.