50 Fun Facts About Interpreter of Maladies

Which award, rarely given to short stories, did Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies win in 2000?

The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction went to Lahiri at the age of 32, for her very first book. It was only the seventh story collection ever to win.

In the story Interpreter of Maladies, which animals attack young Bobby Das during a sightseeing detour?

Monkeys close in on Bobby and beat him with a stick until the guide, Mr. Kapasi, chases them off. They had followed a trail of food his mother spilled as she walked away.

In Jhumpa Lahiri's The Third and Final Continent, which news event must Mrs. Croft's lodger praise nightly?

The Moon landing happens while the narrator is flying to America in 1969, and his aged landlady cannot get over it. Each evening he must sit beside her and agree that it is a marvel.

In Jhumpa Lahiri's A Temporary Matter, what does a notice warn Shoba and Shukumar to expect for five evenings?

A power cut at eight each night, while a line is repaired, is the temporary matter of the title. In the dark the estranged couple begin trading secrets they had never told each other.

In Interpreter of Maladies, where does tour guide Mr. Kapasi work on weekdays, using his gift for languages?

A doctor's office is where he translates the symptoms of Gujarati-speaking patients for a physician who cannot understand them. Mrs. Das finds the job romantic; he had always thought it a failure.

In Jhumpa Lahiri's The Treatment of Bibi Haldar, what cure is finally prescribed for Bibi's mysterious fits?

Marriage is the remedy she is given after years of failed treatments, from standing on her head to drinking egg yolks in milk. Her cousin refuses to have her photographed for suitors, calling her a liability.

In Jhumpa Lahiri's This Blessed House, what do Sanjeev and Twinkle keep finding, left by the previous owners?

Christian trinkets turn up all over the house, starting with a porcelain Christ beside a bottle of vinegar. Twinkle lines them up on the mantel, while Sanjeev wants them thrown out.

In which city was Interpreter of Maladies author Jhumpa Lahiri born, before her family left for America?

London is her birthplace: her parents had emigrated there from India, and she was a toddler when they moved on to Massachusetts. She holds both British and American citizenship.

In the Jhumpa Lahiri story Mrs. Sen's, which skill does Mrs. Sen dread learning, despite her husband's urging?

Driving terrifies her, yet without it she cannot reach the seaside market she longs for. When she finally sets out alone with young Eliot aboard, she hits a telephone pole.

In Jhumpa Lahiri's When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine, which holiday has the guest fretting over Lilia's safety?

Halloween baffles him, and he offers to walk with her, his own daughters being out of reach in a war zone. Lilia goes dressed as a witch and comes home to find their carved jack-o'-lantern smashed.

In Jhumpa Lahiri's When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine, which new nation does the guest fly home to after the war?

Bangladesh is born that winter, when East Pakistan breaks away after a short war between India and Pakistan. Months later a letter confirms that his wife and daughters are safe.

In Jhumpa Lahiri's The Third and Final Continent, what fact about landlady Mrs. Croft astonishes the narrator?

She is 103 years old, as her daughter Helen reveals on a visit. From then on the lodger, who had felt he owed her nothing, starts to worry about her and look after her.

In the story Interpreter of Maladies, what does Mrs. Das confess to Mr. Kapasi while her family sightsees?

A past affair with a visiting friend of her husband's left her pregnant with Bobby, and she has hidden it for eight years. She hopes the guide can soothe her pain; he asks whether it is really guilt.

Which first novel by Interpreter of Maladies author Jhumpa Lahiri became a film directed by Mira Nair?

The Namesake, published in 2003, follows the American-born son of immigrants who is saddled with the name Gogol. Lahiri appears in the film herself, in a cameo as an aunt.

In the Jhumpa Lahiri story Mrs. Sen's, what does Mrs. Sen phone a market for, craving a taste of Calcutta?

Fresh fish, sold whole, is one of only two things that make her happy; the other is a letter from her family. The market knows her as a regular, though she rates its catch below Calcutta's.

In Jhumpa Lahiri's When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine, what does the guest hand young Lilia each evening on arrival?

Candy is her reward for taking his coat each night, and Lilia hoards it in a sandalwood box that was her grandmother's. She eats one piece at bedtime as a prayer for his missing family.

In Jhumpa Lahiri's A Temporary Matter, what news does Shoba break to Shukumar on the last night of confessions?

She is moving out, having signed the lease on an apartment of her own that very day. The nightly confessions, he realises, were her way of working up the nerve to tell him.

In Jhumpa Lahiri's A Real Durwan, what is a durwan, the post Boori Ma fills at a Calcutta apartment block?

A doorkeeper is what the word means, though Boori Ma is really a 64-year-old stair-sweeper who sleeps by the gate. Her neighbours put up with her tall tales of lost riches until something goes missing.

Which language did Interpreter of Maladies author Jhumpa Lahiri adopt for her books after relocating to Europe?

Italian became her writing language after she moved to Rome, beginning with a memoir about learning it. She later translated her own Italian novel into English as Whereabouts.

In the story Interpreter of Maladies, which chariot-shaped monument does Mr. Kapasi drive the Das family to see?

Konark Sun Temple, on the coast of Odisha, was built in the 13th century as a colossal stone chariot for the sun god Surya. The whole Das family admires it, to their guide's delight.

In Jhumpa Lahiri's Sexy, in which Boston landmark do the acoustics carry Dev's whisper across the room to Miranda?

The Mapparium is a three-storey stained-glass globe that visitors walk through on a bridge. There Dev tells Miranda she is sexy, the first time anyone has, and the word comes back to haunt her.

In Jhumpa Lahiri's Sexy, whose blunt definition of the title word leads Miranda to stop seeing Dev?

A seven-year-old boy named Rohin, left in her care for an afternoon, explains the word by what it did to his own family. His dad had left home for a stranger he sat beside on a plane.

In Jhumpa Lahiri's A Real Durwan, the theft of which new fixture gets Boori Ma thrown out of the building?

A washbasin fitted in the stairwell by Mr. Dalal, the first in the building, is ripped out while she is off spending her savings on treats. The residents decide she tipped off the thieves.

In Jhumpa Lahiri's This Blessed House, which faith do newlyweds Sanjeev and Twinkle share, having wed in India?

Hinduism is the couple's shared faith, and their parents, who are old friends, set up their first meeting. They wed after a brief long-distance courtship and moved into a house he had chosen.

Which language, shared by Mr. Pirzada and his hosts in Interpreter of Maladies, was Jhumpa Lahiri's first?

Bengali was the language of her childhood home, where she was forbidden to speak anything else until she was four. She speaks it fluently but has said she cannot read it.

In Jhumpa Lahiri's A Temporary Matter, what does Shukumar finally reveal that Shoba had chosen never to find out?

Their baby's sex was the one thing Shoba wanted kept a mystery, but Shukumar had held their stillborn son at the hospital while she slept. He tells her in answer to her own last confession.

Jhumpa Lahiri based the librarian who narrates The Third and Final Continent on which relative?

Her father, Amar Lahiri, made the same journey across three continents and became a university librarian. Her parents planned to stay in America for a few years and stayed for decades.

In the story Interpreter of Maladies, which snack does Mrs. Das eat without sharing, then spill as she walks?

Puffed rice is the snack she keeps to herself in the car, sharing it with no one. When she storms off after her confession, the grains she drops draw the hillside's wildlife toward her son.

In Jhumpa Lahiri's The Third and Final Continent, where does the narrator lodge cheaply on first reaching America?

The YMCA in Central Square gives him a cheap room, but the traffic roaring past his window keeps him awake. An advert for a quieter room leads him to Mrs. Croft's door.

In Jhumpa Lahiri's The Treatment of Bibi Haldar, what seems to cure Bibi after every remedy has failed?

Motherhood does it: abandoned by her cousin, she is found pregnant and never names the man, and once her son is born the fits stop. The neighbours never learn who he was.

In the Jhumpa Lahiri story Mrs. Sen's, to what does Mrs. Sen compare the red powder in the parting of her hair?

A wedding ring is how she explains the vermilion to Eliot, the eleven-year-old she minds after school, adding that hers can never get lost while doing the dishes.

Which magazine named Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies its Best Debut of the Year?

The New Yorker also printed several of the collection's stories, so its readers were among the first to meet Lahiri's characters.

In the story Interpreter of Maladies, what does Mr. Kapasi write on a scrap of paper that Mrs. Das later loses?

His address goes on a strip torn from a magazine so that she can post him a copy of a photograph. He dreams of years of letters, then sees the paper flutter away as she tends to her son.

In Jhumpa Lahiri's This Blessed House, which event are Sanjeev and Twinkle hosting when guests search the attic?

A housewarming party brings his colleagues to the house, and Twinkle leads them all on a treasure hunt upstairs. They come down with one last find, a heavy silver bust.

In The Third and Final Continent by Jhumpa Lahiri, which university's library hires the narrator from abroad?

MIT offers him a post in its library when he is 36, and he flies to Boston straight after marrying in Calcutta. His new landlady rents rooms only to men from Harvard or Tech.

In Jhumpa Lahiri's When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine, which subject is the guest researching in New England?

Botany is his field: a lecturer from Dacca, he holds a grant to study New England's foliage. The stipend is so meagre that he dines every night with Lilia's family.

In Jhumpa Lahiri's Sexy, where does Miranda first notice Dev, as he buys creams for his wife?

A department store in Boston is where she lingers at the beauty counter to stay near him. She cannot place his accent and guesses that he might be Lebanese or Spanish.

In Jhumpa Lahiri's A Real Durwan, which upheaval does Boori Ma say cost her a husband, daughters and a fine home?

Partition, the 1947 division of British India, sent millions across the new borders as refugees. Her accent proves she crossed over, even if the marble floors she describes are doubtful.

In the story Interpreter of Maladies, which career did Mr. Kapasi dream of as a young man devoted to languages?

Translator for diplomats was the ambition of a man who had taught himself several languages. Debts from his son's fatal illness tied him instead to a job that his wife resents.

In When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine by Jhumpa Lahiri, which school topic keeps Lilia from a library book on Pakistan?

The American Revolution is the class topic, and Lilia's task is a report on the surrender at Yorktown. Her teacher tells her the book on Pakistan has nothing to do with it.

In the story Interpreter of Maladies, which disease killed Mr. Kapasi's young son and left him with bills to pay?

Typhoid took the child when he was very young, and the debts that followed ended Mr. Kapasi's grander ambitions. His wife resents the job he took because it reminds her of the loss.

In Jhumpa Lahiri's When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine, which possession does the guest keep set to the time in Dacca?

A pocket watch made of silver runs eleven hours ahead of the clocks in Lilia's house. It makes her realise that his daughters are already waking to the next morning.

In Jhumpa Lahiri's A Real Durwan, what does Boori Ma keep knotted in her sari from her lost life of riches?

Skeleton keys, she says, opened the coffer boxes that once held her valuables. A pickpocket takes them, along with her purse, on the very afternoon of the theft at the building.

In Jhumpa Lahiri's The Treatment of Bibi Haldar, which business does Bibi reopen after her cousin leaves town?

A cosmetics stall was her cousin Haldar's livelihood until the neighbourhood wives, angry at how he treated her, shopped elsewhere and ruined him. She fixes it up and supports her son from it.

In Jhumpa Lahiri's The Third and Final Continent, how did Mrs. Croft earn a living after she was widowed?

Teaching piano kept her household going after her husband died, her daughter Helen explains. The narrator thinks of his own mother, whom widowhood broke.

In Jhumpa Lahiri's This Blessed House, which composer's Fifth Symphony does Sanjeev play while he unpacks?

Mahler meant the symphony as a romantic gesture, his version of a proposal, as Sanjeev learns from the liner notes. Twinkle shouts from the bathroom that she finds the music boring.

In Jhumpa Lahiri's Sexy, which Bollywood actress does Dev say his wife resembles, sending Miranda to a video shop?

Madhuri Dixit shares a surname with the one Indian family Miranda knew as a child, whose home had frightened her. She goes looking for the star's films at an Indian grocery that rents videos.

In the story Interpreter of Maladies, the Das family's accents remind Mr. Kapasi of which American TV show?

Dallas, the Texas oil-family soap, is how he knows the sound of American speech. The Das parents were both born in the United States and dress, to his eye, like foreigners.

Which novelist picked the story Interpreter of Maladies for The Best American Short Stories as guest editor?

Amy Tan co-edited the 1999 volume with series editor Katrina Kenison, a year after the story first appeared in print. Lahiri's full collection came out that same year.

Which honour for a first book of fiction, named after a famous novelist, went to Interpreter of Maladies?

PEN/Hemingway Award winners are American authors publishing their first book of fiction. Mary Hemingway founded it in 1976 in memory of her husband, Ernest.