A temporary matter

Characters:
1. Shuba (wife) “33 years old” works as a proof figure.
2. Shukumar (husband) “35 years old” a PhD student - No job
Setting: New York
Time: med or 20th century
They were married for three years (happily), They didn't know each other before marriage, but their
families knew each other’s.

 Shuba was pregnant and gave birth to a dead child "cesarean” 3 weeks before the time. This
event was the dividing line between their lives before and what it became afterward.
 Gillian, a friend of shuba, took her to the hospital because her husband Shukumar was not
there.
 The doctor convinced Shukumar to hold the baby because it is good for him and his emotions.
So, he knew the gender of the baby, but he kept it secret from shuba.
 Shuba's life became unorganized, and she became careless.
 Shukumar always cooks food although financially they could order food from restaurants, but
he took time to cook because for family food is gathering aspect. And he did this in an attempt
to save their marriage.
 After the death of their born baby (a lack of communication) “avoidance” happened, they
wanted to stay away from each other there were separation between them and also the term of
eating, they take their dish and sit anywhere away from each other to eat alone.
 Shakumar took that term off and stayed in the room of the baby which they both prepared
waiting for their first baby and he removed and took off all the decoration... and he turned the
room into a study room for him, but shuba avoided going to that room, because it reminds her
of the baby.
 “Even were not there” shuba told Shakumar. Saying that it is his mistake, Shakumar feels
guilty. But it is not his mistake that the baby is dead, even if he was there, he can't do anything
to prevent the death of the baby. And she is the one who insisted on him traveling and paying
attention to his work as meditators. And focusing on his PhD studies he left her and went and
was not convinced about going, but she was the one who insisted on him going.
 Guilt comes with the feeling of responsibility, so you cannot feel guilty if there is no
responsibility.
 They became afraid after that birth and there was no intensity that the whole experience will
be repeated all the time (fear of experience to be repeated)
 they decided to stop going to the shopping center like their neighbors, when the electricity is
off their American neighbors goes hand on hand to the store but they decided to eat on the
stair in front of the house, and they decided to play the confession game (she confessed
something she didn't tell him, and he confessed something he didn't tell her)
what did they confess?
1. When she bought him a jacket, he said it and bought wine.
2. One day he cut a picture of a girl from a magazine and hid it in his book.
3. once he read a poem, he wrote to her, and she pretended that she liked it at that time, but
she didn't actually, so she told him that it was terrible and boring.
4. She didn't respect his mother when he left home.
 5. She told him that she had found an apartment close to her job and she wanted to move
and leave him.
6. He said that he saw the baby and told him, and he knew the gender of the baby and it is a
boy.
What is the temporary matter that exists in this story?

 Power outages
 The lack of communication
 The confession games.

 They were playing in the dark so they don't see the expression directly so the darkness was
like a cover to hide their emotions, and it could be that they were being shy about being
honest with each other while their eyes were in each other's eyes.
 They could save their marriage and talk together and understand each other but they were
both affected by what happened and they couldn't save it.
 When Shakumar moved to the baby room to study he was distracted that even when shuba
visited him, there he pretended to do something related to his studies.
 They avoided each other for six to seven months after the operation and before she decided to
leave. But if she truly loves him, she wouldn't give up on him this way.

Question: What is the function of her friend who took her to the hospital?

When Mr. Pirzada came to dine

 The life of immigrants of the first generation and 2nd generation - life of exile
 the narrator Lilia is a girl (Indian) lived in (US)
 the geographical is center.

 The narrator must be somebody whose house in 1971 was visited by a certain person call
mom because of using the term “our” in the story, so the narrator is the first person, singular.
The narrator is a little girl, called Lilia, she is 10 years old, and she's the 1st place of the
narrator, she wrote the whole story from A-Z.
 Mr. Pirzada had a three-story home, he comes from Dacca (capital of Bangladesh) “He is a
lecturer”, he had a lectureship in botany so he must be a professor. Botany means flowers and
plants. His wife is 20 years old, and he had seven daughters between the age of 6 and 16
whose names all began with the letter “A”. Here was a sense of humor from the narrator and
the author. His wife is 20 and his older daughter is 16, maybe it is a mistake from the text, or
the 16-year-old girl is not her daughter, maybe it's the father's daughter from another woman.
He complains that it is hard to distinguish between his daughters because all their names start
with the letter A
 observe the function of food, kitchen in those stories by Jhumpa Lahiri. There is the culture of
food, or we may call it Indian cuisine.
 His daughter names verified that he is Muslim. Each week, Mr. Pirzada writes a letter to his
wife and send comic books to each of his daughters.

 In the story “here” means (America) and “there” means (Dacca). This is exile.
 New England  the eastern coast or part of the United States. His studies there [the foliage
(colorful trees) of the New England] which he had been awarded from the government of
Pakistan a grant. This is very ironical because a university in Pakistan sent a scientist to
America for a full year on a scholarship to study the foliage, is there a benefit for them to do
this?

 And he started visiting this family (Lillia’s house) which turns out to be a Hindu’s family. I
think Jhumpa Lahiri have a purpose behind this, as a writer she tries to illustrate the
relationship between a Muslim and a Hindu’s family. Lillia keeps telling us about Pirzada
visits and how they spent enjoyable time together. He goes there mainly to listen to the news,
and he was invited for the first time by Lilia’s parents.

 How did they find him? They are Indian family and every year they look at the list of the
students of the university and if they see any name that sounds Indian, they contact with them,
so this year they count out Mr. Pirzada’s name And they invited him to their house.

 Every night there was a visit by Mr. Pirzada, they play some games and they eat every night,
so Lillia’s mother had to cook every night, and they have to dine because his scholarship from
Pakistan’s government couldn't cover him renting a flat or having a TV that's why he goes
their house to listen to the news in their TV. So, Lilia started to be educated about geography
and about the place homeland so now the story shifts from Mr. Pirzada to Lilia, Lilia is the
second generation of immigrants. She was in American school when her father was trying to
explain that Mister Pirzada was once an Indian, now he is not Indian, she sees that they speak
the same language, they eat the same way, he comes to visit us, and he is from different
religion, so the girl could not really understand. This is a story about the education of this
generation. So, her father took her back and explained to her in the map that this was India
now it is divided into India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

 After her father's spoke to her about Pakistan, about the history, geography, etc...

 She and her friends had an assignment from the history teacher to do some research in the
library, she went with them and she saw a book about Pakistan. She picked the book, and she
sat separate reading, then her teacher came to the library and she found her reading that book.
And then she said, “what are you doing Lillia?” she replied: “I'm reading this book”. And then
the teacher took the book and she found that it is about Pakistan, then she said to Lillia: “is
this what you come to do in the library? Weren't you supposed to collaborate with your
friends and do the assignment?” And she took the book and keep it aside. This is very
symbolic, because she tries to say to Lilia that this is not needed anymore, that's not
yours leave it aside and what you should focus on is American history, this is your
country “so that is also part of her education”

 There is another main event in this story that is also part of initiation and education of Lilia
which is “Halloween” Mr. Pirzada came one day and found a big pumpkin in front of the
house and he asked about it and they told him, then he and the family with Lillia started to
grabbing a face in that pumpkin “here Halloween is education” New year goes with her
friends from one house to the other and they say “pick or treat”. Mr. Pirzada felt it was
 dangerous and he asked her parents, is it okay? It is very far. And the mother said it is very
safe don't worry Mr. Pirzada and the children will love it.

 The year passed by and he had to return back home, so one day Lillia come back and didn't
find Mr. Pirzada she didn't see him, he didn't came to dine that night and she asked her
parents, they told her that he had to return back to his family, after a week Pirzada sent them a
wonderful thanking letter for their hospitality and showed them his wife and his seven
daughters they were fine (this is the plot).

Interpret of Maladies
The word maladies means other social troubles than it will be social maladies.
When it was translated to Arabic it was ‫ترجمان االوجاع‬
The best translator to the maladies is the author itself.
• The malady of first story was lack of communication
• The malady of the second story was exile and separation of family
• The malady of this story is physical

The first paragraph presents us with family malady (the relationship between them was not going
well)
The little girl started complaining and wanted to go to the bathroom just after 5 minutes of picking her
up.
The names can tell us that there are two cultures (Tina, Bobby, Ronny) and clothing.
The children don’t listen to their parents, they lack communication Between parents and children.
The language is very indicative,
Not having a picture of the whole family is a symbol of not being a whole family.
Mr. and Mrs. Das are strangers.
Mr. das was busy taking pictures of the temple and enjoying the trip.
They came to visit their parents in India but sometimes they have time to so sightseeing in India.
The marriage relationship is not good, the emotions and speaking are dry they are young in thirties,
Mr. Kapasi thought they were siblings instead of parents because of the attitude of the parents they
don’t have the responsibility of being parents.

Mr. Kapasi was a teacher in fact of English, then the second job was being interpreter.
Gujaratis are the patients who come to the clinic.
Mr. Kapasi is complaining that he doesn’t talk with his wife.
She revealed one of her secrets, that one of her children (Bobby) was not Mr. Das’s child to Mr.
Kapasi when they went to the hills and Mr. Das left the car with his children.
Because his job was an interpreter of maladies she revealed her secret to him about her malady, he did
not understand that she was telling him this so he can help her, so he asked her why are you telling me
this? He asked her a question... are you really asking me to reveal your pain or is it because you feel
guilty? She didn’t answer because Mr. Kapasi asked the killing question… he puts his finger in the
malady and left the car and slapped the car door and goes out to her husband and children…

The big situation and irony in the story are that when booby was being slapped by the monkey Mr.
Das did not jump and help his son, but Mr. Kapasi did and helped Bobby.

When the paper of his address flew out of Mrs. Das bag, he loses hope, and this was the ending
of the story.

A Real Durwan
(Buri Ma immigrants from Bengali and come to America. She is homeless.)
I (first)
You (second)

She (third person singular) ✅

⁃ Visual sense, visual imagery.

⁃ She was 64 years/ sweeper of building

⁃ After mentioning the character, writer talked about physical description

*Setting
She is immigrants / outsider / Bangali.
When we talk about the past, we mean history.

⁃ She is a victim of lost and war

Hi / story --> plot.

• Buri’s dialogue —> “believe me or don’t believe me.”

⁃ History is a linguistic construction.

⁃ Thieves have stolen everything from her home (climax)

Last words of her believe me, believe me (she was real)

Why was easy to point on Buri Ma?

1. Always easy to blame the victim
2. Female
3. Outsider
4. Individual weak in front of group
5. She was helpless

⁃ There was no way of racing

⁃ They don’t have valuables. Only Mrs. Misra’s phone set.

This is the sentence that for all the resident to kick her from the building (building need is a real
Durwan)

Buri Ma —> woman - 64yrs - refugee since Pakistan and India were part.
Durwan —> doorkeeper / job: clean apartment and doesn’t take money because she lives there in
exchange / from Dacca / an outsider -lower class -weak woman.
She talks about her past life - she uses “crazy memories.”

⁃ Victim of exile war / lost her family, house.

⁃ They said Boori Ma was working with a thief, so they kicked her out-she left with
only her wearing clothes, nothing else.

⁃ Considering what she went through (loses), she might not have the best memory,
neither she could be honest about what she used to have, this also could be a coping mechanism she
uses to cope to what had happened to her.

⁃ The place she lived in, her daughter’s wedding, the story, how resident of building
view her as dishonest or harmless.

⁃ Climax —> key was stolen by thief.

So, they doubt her because she was not consistent.

⁃ They disregarded her importance and value and left her with a broom. (Story of Boori
Ma, her character and evidence)

* We must provide examples*

When we write about a character:
• physical description - what narrator talks about the character
 • What character say about themselves (character words)

QUESTION: How does Jhumpa Lahiri draw children? Fragile/can be affected negatively.

⁃ A real Durwan—> is a man but here we have woman (unreal)

⁃ Boori —> it’s not a proper name / she is a sweeper / she has key / doesn’t sleep for
two days.

⁃ Sense of imagery, visual- narrator seeing things.

⁃ Gender / age / physical descriptions are important.

⁃ 9 million of people live in India and live in different parts of world “immigrants/
outsider”

⁃ She has four daughters.

History of Buri Ma —> story of past —> she was rich and lived in the same way as citizens.
• Now she is refugee - faced war - loses (family/home) she was immigrant for years.

⁃ Buri Ma’s memory can be effective by what happened to her, negative things, that’s
why she changed her story every time.
(Stole the basins) —> climax, she cleared herself that she doesn’t give the keys to anybody.
(Believe me -believe me) —> statement change-as a reader we believe her-sympathy with her.

⁃ They created a need for something that is not really important - materialism comes in
and then they kicked out Buri Ma, and now they need Durwan to protect this stuff. It is their illusion
that they made the building more valuable by painting and the valuable thing is only the telephone.

⁃ They were poor all.

⁃ All these against the background of immigration.

⁃ Language reveals a lot and sometimes hide a lot.

⁃ Language has its unconscious- uncertainty

Ending —> residents doubt on her, throw her luggage, she left with nothing.
New paint/ new Durwan.

⁃ Treating of refugee woman (Malady).

⁃ Key (symbol of building).

⁃ Language of story, make a sympathetic with Buri Ma.

 ⁃ What Buri Ma used to say? - Believe me, I’m rich, I have wealth, daughters, trees,
plants.

⁃ Narrator says that Buri Ma sometimes adds things to her story

⁃ They respect her, and allowed her to have a cup of tea (residents)

⁃ She kept everything clean

⁃ She had some saving with her

This is the story of Buri Ma, who was immigrant, from Dacca.
She is 64, living in a building and keeping it clean.
Everybody respects her until one day because of rain, she gets out when she loses her place - she finds
somebody took her saving and key.

They promised to buy a new key for Buri Ma, somebody has stolen basins from her place.

⁃ so, they doubt that she has stolen key and basins.

⁃ Now building need a real Durwan—> so Buri Ma was out, with no food- no place.
When she saw her Saari, she doesn’t see the key.

Sexy
A one-word title (ambiguity) to invite the readers to come and read what is the story talking about
-This story is about a certain malady (Laxmi’s cousin’s husband had called in love with another
woman)
The first paragraph is compact (the narrative point of view), (the characters) and (the malady itself)
We immediately know that those characters come from different countries because Laxmi is not and
American name, it’s either Hindi or Bengali, while Miranda is not an Indian or Bengali name.

Taj mahal is located in India and it is a symbol of love, (she kept a photo of her and her husband in a
white stone in front of Taj Mahal)

Laxmi’s cousin’s husband have abandoned her in the airport of London and went with a British white
girl who is half his age, Laxmi were in the phone with her cousin for one full hour trying to calm her
down and no one noticed because they worked for a public radio station (they are in a call all the
time) Which shows us that Laxmi is very sympathetic and very much concerned to her cousin

-When families break down, women are the victims but children are the highest price(the real victim),
her son stayed at home for days and shoe couldn’t even take him to school ( the mother and the boy at
home, the husband decided to stay away from the family and she understood that he left her for
another woman)

When Miranda said “it sounds awful” (she was talking to her husband referring to what he Cooked)
then she typed letters asking members of the radio station to increase their annual pledge in exchange
for a tote bag or an umbrella, but that afternoon Miranda were not listening the was in the phone with
dev deciding were to meet that afternoon

The British woman was attracted to him because he was tall and athletic and his skin color , she
noticed how his legs were tall and he was the first one who praised her that she is sexy and beautiful
and he were listening to her, before she met him she was lonely and going to the cinema alone which
is socially unusual to an American woman.
The relationship between Miranda and Dave were unbalanced from the beginning because she could
never ask or request anything from him but then she knew that there is no future between them when
she babysits with Rohan that night, she ended the relationship and started to make excuses and
apologizing that she is out and can’t meet him on Sundays (the day he kept for her to meet her) and so
on…. She knew that he just cares about her (sexually), and he does not care about her, the illusion is
that she thought she was in real love. Miranda was attracted to Dave because of his skin color.

The name of the boy was (Rohen) - a full Indian name, he is seven years old and can speak 4
languages which refers to as a genius boy. He was clear and told Miranda about his mom that she
were crying until her eyes puff, Rohan told Miranda that she is sexy when he told her to put that dress
and she wore it for the sake of that child and she was shocked- Rohan defines the word “sexy” as
loving a stranger woman. The Miranda knew that Rohan’s father loved a woman who is sexier than
his mom… parallel.

The meeting of two cultures (Indian) the husband and the British girl
Miranda (American) and Laxmi (Indian)

Miranda didn’t tell her friend Laxmi about her relationship with Dev because she knows what she is
doing is wrong and Laxmi sounds to be a very strong woman unlike Miranda and her cousin.

Mrs. Sen’s
The story is about the idea of assimilation.
• Mrs. Sen’s means Mrs. Sen house
• We have two names- two cultures (Mrs. Sen - an Indian name) and (Eliot - American
name)
• Eliot is a 11-year boy
 • The malady in first paragraph is that the “Eliot” needs someone to sit him and take
care of him while his mom is at work, the problem is that a child his father is not there, and his mom
is so busy to take care of him so he moves from one babysitter to another
• The quality time - is a very short period of time that parents spend with their children
that make it for them in the future
• All the babysitters come to take care of Eliot in Mrs. Linden’s house, but Mrs. Sen
didn’t know how to drive so Eliot goes her house
• Eliot’s mother has a house in the beach and her job is 50 kilometers outside of the
city, so she has to drive long miles
• What kind of life is Eliot living here? Loneliness and isolation are there in the
beginning of the story.
• How are the events arranged? America in this story in not suitable to Mrs. Sen at all
• Eliot and Mrs. Sen, they both feel the same way (disconnected)
• The conflict between cultures
• There is a big different between husband and wife in the term of education, Mrs. Sen
is a housewife who doesn’t know how to drive while her husband is a professor
• The only good thing she can do is cooking, she spends all her time chopping
vegetables
• All the characters in one way or another live in a loneliness; Eliot, his mother, Mrs.
Sen, and her husband
• After the car accident, which was not dangerous, Mrs. Sen decided to not drive at all
and stay in her room
• There is lack of communication in the story
• Mrs. Sen asked Eliot a very interesting question , she asked him if he will keep his
mom in the elderly home when she becomes very old and he said yes but I will visit her every day;
she told him that when he will grow up he will not be able to visit her every day because he won’t
have time
• The fisher man was her only connection but then she stopped going there because
there is no one to drive her (depression)
• Loneliness and isolation can lead to depression, of course Mr. Sen is not happy all
time and she only feel happy when she receives a letter from her country and when she cooks
• Eliot’s mom did not treat Mrs. Sen properly, she always makes her feel foreign, when
Mrs. Sen offers food to Mrs. Linden (Eliot’s mom) she refuses to eat it.

This blessed house.

There could be a question in exam says “how you compare this character and Mr. Sen.”
Plot: young married couples, they moved to a new rented house.
Twinkle found things of Christian.
They are Hindus, this story has a relation with religion. “Religion is a major issue.”
Twinkle wants to keep these things of Christian, but her husband doesn’t (this is the major issue)
They got married for 5 months, because their parents know each other, in this collection marriage is
not an individual issue but a family matter. Not like American culture, where marriage is an individual
matter.

*The husband is very sensor about Religion, but Twinkle is more independent and freer to accept new
things.

⁃ Husband’s connection with India and their honeymoon also was in India.

⁃ Husband is a very smart Engineer.

⁃ The name of Twinkle is a suggestive, she behaves like a girl with Sanjeev is in his 30.

⁃ Sanjeev - connected to India culture.

⁃ Twinkle - connected to America culture.

Twinkle was studying literature- doing Masters.

⁃ she called the house blessed because she found Christian items.

⁃ The house was new (needs a lot of work)

⁃ We have reversal roles of gender.

⁃ Wife doesn’t cook and clean the dust, but the husband did it.

⁃ Sanjeev cooks for party (which were 30 people)

⁃ Sanjeev does everything for part

Who was highly praised after the party? Twinkle.
Sanjeev was pushed into shadow.

⁃ people were feeling free - they start going from room to another and they saw item of
Christian [American culture]

⁃ childish wife - because of name

⁃ 3rd person- Sanjeev point of view.

The narrator shows sympathy with Sanjeev.
What point of view shifted to Twinkle?