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Unit 8: Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies: Detailed Study

the monkeys’ hands. The boy was silent, his body frozen, swift tears running down his startled face. Notes
His bare legs were dusty and red with welts from where one of the monkeys struck him repeatedly
with the sack he had given to it earlier.
“Daddy, the monkey’s hurting Bobby,” Tina said.
Mr. Das wiped his palms on the front of his shorts. In his nervousness he accidentally pressed the
shutter on his camera; the whirring noise of the advancing film excited the monkeys, and the one
with the stick began to beat Bobby more intently. “What are we supposed to do? What if they start
attacking?”
“Mr. Kapasi.” Mrs. Das shrieked, noticing him standing to one side. “Do something, for God’s sake,
do something!” Mr. Kapasi took his branch and shooed them away, hissing at the ones that remained,
stomping his feet to scare them. The animals retreated slowly, with a measured gait, obedient but
unintimidated. Mr. Kapasi gathered Bobby in his arms and brought him back to where his parents
and siblings were standing. As he carried him he was tempted to whisper a secret into the boy’s ear.
But Bobby was stunned, and shivering with fright, his legs bleeding slightly where the stick had
broken the skin. When Mr. Kapasi delivered him to his parents. Mr. Das brushed some dirt off the
boy’s T-shirt and put the visor on him the right way. Mrs. Das reached into her straw bag to find a
bandage which she taped over the cut on his knee. Ronny offered his brother a fresh piece of gum.
“He’s fine. Just a little scared, right.
Bobby?” Mr. Das said, parting the top of his head.
“God, let’s get out of here.” Mrs. Das said. She folded her arms across the strawberry on her chest.
“This place gives me the creeps.”
“Yeah. Back to the hotel, definitely,” Mr. Das agreed.
“Poor Bobby,” Mrs. Das said. “Come here a second.
Let Mommy fix your hair.” Again she reached into her straw bag, this time for her hairbrush, and
began to run it around the edges of the translucent visor. When she whipped out the hairbrush, the
slip of paper with Mr. Kapasi’s address on it fluttered away in the wind. No one but Mr. Kapasi
noticed. He watched as it rose, carried higher and higher by the breeze, into the trees where the
monkeys now sat, solemnly observing the scene below. Mr. Kapasi observed it too, knowing that this
was the picture of the Das family he would preserve forever in his mind.
Self-Assessment
1. Choose the correct options:
(i) Mr. Das standing with their children under the Portico of the ............... .
(a) House (b) Hospital
(c) Building (d) Hotel
(ii) Mr. Kapasi was assigned to foreign tourists regularly because he could speak ............... .
(a) Italian (b) French
(c) English (d) None of these
(iii) “Oh, Mina and I were both born in America,” ............... announced.
(a) Mr. Kapasi (b) Bobby
(c) Mr. Das (d) None of these
(iv) Mrs. Das flicked a drop of polish on the tittle girl’s ............... .
(a) Hands (b) Head
(c) Fingers (d) None of these
(v) Mr. Kapasi had been teaching ............... in a grammar school.
(a) English (b) French
(c) Italian (d) None of these

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