Distance in Lahari's Interpreter of Maladies

In Interpreter of Maladies, there were nine short stories that were approximately 23 pages each. The theme of the stories seemed driven by distances. Some deal with the distance between lovers or families. Some deal with distance between ideas. Others deal with physical distance. In the stories “A Temporary Matter”,” Interpreter of Maladies,” and “This Blessed House,” we see distance in marriages. “The Treatment of Bibi Haldar,” “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine,” “The Third and final Continent,” and “Mrs. Sen’s” focus on physical distance. The two stories “Sexy” and “The Real Duran” do not link with the rest of the stories.
In “A Temporary Matter,” the man and wife lost their child and since then were unable to see each other without remembering their loss. The husband attempts to rekindle the passion in their relationship by turning out all the lights and revealing all of their secrets. The wife tells the husband near the end of the story that she had found an apartment and was going to move out. The husband reveals that he had held the deceased infant and knew the sex.
In “Interpreter of Maladies,” the tour guide and driver looks at this couple he has in his car that seems incompatible. The couple has three children, two boys and a girl. The mother appears to be detached from them. He dreams of having a secret affair with the wife but finds out when the child is surrounded by monkeys and the parents join together to save him that their relationship may seem strange but it works for them.
The story “This Blessed House,” is about a couple moving in to a new home. The wife discovers many “Christian paraphernalia” in the house. The wife loves them and wants to display them all over the house. However they are Christians and the husband is concerned about what the neighbors and people from his job will think. He wants to destroy it all but for some reason he doesn’t. his wife delights in finding these things all over the house.
“The Treatment of Bibi Haladar” speaks of a female that has an extreme case of epilepsy. The doctor diagnoses sexual interaction as a cure for illness. The epilepsy interferes with her everyday life and because she could never function very long her parents failed to show her the rituals that all women were supposed to be able to follow by as a wife. When people realized that she was incapable of doing these things no one wanted to marry her. When her brother’s wife becomes pregnant they move Bibi to another part of the house which shuts her off from everybody because they fear that her illness will bring harm to the child. The child is born healthy but falls ill one day after Bibi is moved back down to the main part of the house. Bibi is sent back to her area above the house and when the family moves away she refuses to come down. They discover that she was pregnant. Bibi was distanced from the family as well as from others because of her disease.
In Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine, Mr. Pirazada visits a family’s home before and during Halloween. He is distanced from his family who are in a war zone. He becomes attached to the family’s little girl because she is much like his daughter’s.
In “The Third and Final continent,” the elderly lady who allows the young man to live n her home is distanced from the world. In that everything has changed so since when she was young because she is 103 years old and has dementia.
In the story “Mrs. Sen’s,” Mrs. Sen is distanced from her sister, her birth home, and her husband who works a lot. She has to learn how to drive so that she can get around. She babysits a young boy and they form a strong bond. He is distanced from his mother.
The story “Sexy” has two main characters the female who is going with the married man and a child that seems whose father is cheating on his mother. There should be a distance between the boy’s mother and father in the story and the man who is having an affair and his wife; but there isn’t. The wife is “beautiful”. Yet the females that the men are cheating with are “sexy”. Therefore its more about sexual freedom or desire rather than filling some void that the marriage isn’t fulfilling anymore.
The story “The Real Duran” focuses on good luck charms and witch craft. The woman is distant from her home but this isn’t the primary focus, even though she is shunned when they find out that she can’t ward off anything.