All I can say is, WOW.

This book is a breathtaking spectacle of color, textures, emotions, and INTELLIGENCE. What I mean is, this just isn't a book of random photographs...these are exquisitely beautiful, intelligent photographs. The fact that the pictures have been taken in India makes it more exotic and adds a bit of spice to the already obvious mysticism.

I can't say I'm a professional at photograpgy, but even i can see the classiness of this piece of art. If you love photos, exotic cultures, or even a bit of sensitivity in photographs, this book is definitely a recommended buy.

Signing off,

Secret Agent Booker

An Interpreter of Maladies is not, as Mrs. Das thinks (and as the reader of Jhumpa Lahiri's stories may initially be thinking, too), a medical doctor or a psychologist; someone who interprets the origin and meaning of his patients' various illnesses and malaises and then prescribes the adequate treatment. No: an Interpreter of Maladies is someone who helps them communicate, who speaks the patients' language and is therefore able to translate their personal representation of their feelings to the listener who then, in turn, must come up with his own interpretation of those representations.

And like Mr. Kapasi, the improbable hero of this collection's title story, Ms. Lahiri merely gives an account of her characters' feelings and situation in life at one particular moment - she rarely judges them, nor does she strive to tell the entire story of their lives; even where, as in "The Third and Final Continent," the narrative covers several decades, it is truly only one brief but crucial period which is important. No sledgehammer is being wielded; Lahiri's tone is subtle, subdued - like any good interpreter, she talks in a low voice, just loud enough for her listener/reader to understand; and you have to want to listen to her. If you expect her to shout, to force her account on you in bullet points and bold strikes, you will miss the many finer nuances in between.

Jhumpa Lahiris heroes are Asian and American, they live in India, Pakistan, London and the U.S., and they eat (and painstakingly slowly prepare) delicious, spicy and flavorful food. Many of the stories deal with emotions and life situations which, although they happen to be experienced by Indians and Asian Americans here, are truly universal - the slow and unspoken death of a marriage ("A Temporary Matter"), prejudice against the unknown, particularly when it comes in the form of an illness ("The Treatment of Bibi Haldar"), the frustrations of a life of unfulfilled promises ("Interpreter of Maladies"), and the multilateral deceptions of marital infidelity ("Sexy"), blunted by the trappings of middle class materialism (again, the title story).

Most of Lahiri's Asian American protagonists belong to the "intellectual" upper middle class suburbian population of Boston and other East Coast cities. While on the one hand this is a plus, because that is the author's own background, too, and therefore a segment of society she can describe from personal experience - which also allows her to make these characters particularly accessible - it on the other hand provides for the story collection's one deficiency; in that it renders her portrayal of Asian Americans (whether recent immigrants or second- and third-generation U.S. citizens) unnecessarily unilateral, to the point of bordering on stereotype - more precisely, the Indian version of the stereotypes generally associated with this part of society. Nevertheless, most of Jhumpa Lahiri's often unlikely heroes are portrayed in great depth, and many of them with a lot of sympathy for their humanness and shortcomings. In the best sense of her adopted role as an interpreter of her protagonists' maladies, it is this delicate understanding and empathy which ultimately carries the tone in Lahiri's writing and which makes her reader want to listen, and to come up with his or her own interpretation of each of these stories.

This novel is a very interesting piece and it reflects Indians in a variety of ways in their country or in other continents migrating for different reasons either by birth or by heritage. The authors use of short stories invites us into the inner experiences of her characters and goes in depth about the way of life of some Indian descent both in India and from one continent to another. The novel doesnt specifically focus on a particular character but on various Indians and thier situations capturing moments of their day to day lives, customs, reasons for migrating, expatriation, values and many more. Her switching from one short story to another lets us imagine other lives in different situations, giving each story something special to remember. Some of her stories are set in 1960.
Her background comes to show us why she uses migration to come to play in her stories and why she focuses on India. Jhumpari Lahiri was born in 1967 in London, England to Indian parents and raised in Rhode Island but visited India several times. In her book, she has a collection of nine stories which she draws on this immigrant experience to create worlds where characters of Indian descent live both in the U.S. and back in India, travelling back and forth.
Some of the stories are set in the 1960s where the U.S. and countries like Pakistan had political turmoils and was. She tends to put in our minds things about her culture ranging from way of lfe, marriage, beliefs, and many more capturing different moments in different stories.
The title story was set in India and it was about an Indian who gave tour guides and he engages with an unhappy housewife who has been trapped with a secret for so long and then feels a sign of relief being able to finally share it him, learning about his other job, being a translator for a doctor for people with ailments.He finds himself involed with the intimate details of other lives as he serves as an interpreter of maladies.
In "A Temporary Matter", a married couple on the brink of divorce due to the loss of a baby rediscover their lost love, thanks to a nightly power outage in their area. The temporary matter refers more to their marriage than to the power outage because helps in reuniting their long forgotten closeness and make them recapture secrets the had kept from eachother. This was a good story because it showed the way a mishap can destroy a relationship and how a little situation can rekindle it.
In "Where Mr Pirzada came to Dine," she goes into a more suspense context and she moves into the life of an Indian under emotional pressure because of the situation in his country. It describes what happens when an immigrant couple invites a visiting Pakistani to dine with them each night and watch television broadcasts on what was going on in the war at Pakistan because his beloved wife and family where there which he had not heard from. The story is told by the couples 10 yr old daughter who is drawn into the sentiment of the moment wishing his family well and praying silently for him and his family reuniting.
In "Sexy," she moves into a more intimate context. A young woman has an affair with a married man she meets at a dept store perfume counter. she shows the reader how their relationship was perfect till the feeling of guilt broke it up because of the effect of how a broken marriage affected her coworkers cousin and made her think twice about the whole affair.
In "Mrs sens," she shows us a young boys analysis of an indian couple using qualities the couple portrayed for example their uncloseness, comparing them to what he was normaly used to.
There are also stories of sadness, grief suffering and loss which made me feel sad."The treatment of Bibi Habler" and "A real Durwan" possesed such qualities.They had this sad feeling to it, i feel she was trying to let us know of the suffering and of how backward some places still are.
I really enjoyed the stories in the book although i did not want any of the stories to end. Another thing which was good was the fact that all the stories had something to it and something to learn about which made the book special.The book also tends to broaden your mind about other cultures, their beliefs and many more.

Jhumpa Lahiri reminds us what good fictional writing is all about. It's about simplicity, clarity and integrity in conveying some essential truth about our human condition. "Interpreter of Maladies", Lahiri's Pulitzer Prize winning short story collection, embodies all these qualities. The stories are mostly though not exclusively about immigrant Indians who have settled overseas and the cultural displacement they experience in their adopted homeland. Sometimes, the perspective is reversed, the location shifts back to the Indian subcontinent and we observe how second generation Americans of Indian origin are regarded when they return as tourists to their motherland. The stories are varied and thoroughly enchanting but the ones that work best are those that capture the absurdity of ordinary situations. There are no heroes and villains in these stories, just people who are vaguely discontent in their relationships due to disharmony with their new environment. "Interpreter of Maladies", the collection's centrepiece, is absolutely brilliant. It is poignant, yet humourous and the ultimate comedy of errors. "A Temporary Matter", "When Mr Pirzada Came To Dine", "A Real Durwan" and "Mrs Sen" are also memorable and deeply affecting for the little truths they reveal. It's great to see that the award committees are finally getting back to basics and recognising the virtues of good writing. Far too often, the splashier titles hog the headlines when it is timeless books like "Interpreter of Maladies" that are the more enduring and enjoy the longest shelf life. I'd be willing to bet that a decade from now, people would still be reading Lahiri's collection when other more showy titles have lost their shine.

Out and Out

Mr Kapasi, whose father was from Gujarat, lives in Puri. His gift for languages hasn't got him very far in life: he works during the week at a clinic, interpreting for the doctor's many Gujarati patients. At weekends, he acts as a driver cum tour guide. Today, his clients are the youthful Mr and Mrs Das, born and raised in America, and their three kids. It's been a long, hot and tiring day visiting the Sun Temple, even so the family agrees to Mr Kapasi's suggestion for a detour via Udaygiri and Khandagiri, hills where Jain monks of yore meditated in caves carved out of the rockface.

Interpreter of Maladies is the title story of Jhumpa Lahiri's first collection of short stories. Lahiri, born in London to Bengali parents, and raised in Rhode Island, is a remarkable new voice in immigrant writing. Controlled, never shrill, she nevertheless fleshes out her characters in vivid detail, a potpourri of smells, sounds, colours, and emotions. She has a sure eye for nuance, a sharp ear for cadence - whether in Calcutta, Boston and Beyond, the sub-title of her book.

For Lahiri, being on the outside, both culturally and in terms of open spaces, are keys to understanding the human condition and the inner world. Hardly a new concept, in Ms Lahiri's deft hands it acquires an original level rarely encountered in contemporary writing. In her stories, complete strangers are in reality soul-mates - their empathy facilitated by the outdoors. Not surprisingly, most of her main characters are women.

Mr Kapasi is an outsider twice removed: a Gujarati in Orissa, and a mere tour guide. But, as Mrs Das says, her interest lies in his other job. '"As an interpreter."' Perhaps a one-night stand can only be confessed to a one-day tour guide. For, tourism, like its elevated cousin anthropology, tells us at least as much about Us as it does about Them.

Back to Ms Lahiri. The lady is a foodie, undoubtedly! Almost all the stories set in America have Indian - nay, Bengali - food as a second helping to the main course. Meats, fish, vegetables, condiments, confection, wines, recipes, preparation, mealtimes - these are detailed so finely as to make one's mouth water. The aromas - redolent with spice and flavouring - linger long after the stories are over. Strangely, none of the three stories set in India are treated in quite this manner. It is as if for the immigrant food is the key to her patrimony, whilst in one's native land, it is just an everyday unremarked reality.

When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine is surely autobiographical, from the viewpoint of Lilia, a 10-year old girl, in 1971, her father a professor at a small university north of Vermont. Mr. Pirzada is from Dacca, in the US on a grant to study the foliage of New England. He's left his wife and seven daughters behind, and comes each evening to dine with her family, and watch the evening news. With no news from Dacca, the TV is Mr Pirzada's only connection with home, at a time when civil war is rending Pakistan asunder.

Kindly Mr Pirzada, never forgets to bring Lilia some confectionery or the other, taking a gentle interest in her well-being, with an affection that he cannot give to his children. Her concerns are more mundane, such as preparing for Halloween. Nevertheless, she worries about Mr Pirzada's family. One night she prays for their safekeeping. "That night when I went to bed, I only pretended to brush my teeth, for I feared that I would somehow rinse the prayer out as well."

Lahiri's Calcutta stories, continue with the theme of the outsider - literally as well - in that Boori Ma (in A Real Durwan) lives underneath the staircase, whilst Bibi (in The Treatment of Bibi Haldar) is banished by her family to the storage room on the roof of the building. In both stories, situations, which occur when the women step out of their worlds, lead to inescapable and drastic consequences. However, neither story rings entirely true. They are too like stories a child might hear on her grandparent's knees - stories from 'the Old Home Town'.

That and her occasional misspelling of Indian / Bengali names are the only jarring notes of an otherwise masterfully crafted collection. Although her prose quality is starkly restrained, it has the ability to take the mundane and infuse it with so much meaning that we are forced to confront and see our Self in the Other. Lahiri's storytelling totally lacks the need to construct artificial worlds to bring home the truth.

The final, resounding, narrative, Across Three Continents, tells of the relationship between a newly arrived young man from India and his octogenarian (or so he thinks!) Boston landlady. She's finicky, old-fashioned and ordered in her ways; he's nervous, doesn't quite know the right thing to do, the right thing to say. And so she instructs him, and when finally put to the test, he does not fail her. After the arrival of Mala, his new bride, from Calcutta, Mrs Croft becomes their guide to a New World, teaching them to admire their new country, both for its past traditions and its present achievements.

"Still," our young friend tells us after 30 moons in America, "there are times when I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, every person I have known, every room I have slept in."

And so it is with Lahiri - who takes us intimately into the lives of ordinary people everywhere, with so much candour and compassion. By doing so, she acts, like Mr Kapasi, as the interpreter of our maladies.