Interpreter of Maladies: "Mrs. Sen's"

by Jhumpa Lahiri
The title story of Jhumpa Lahiri's collection explores the way people try, and fail, to communicate with one another.

Here are links to our lists for other stories in the Pulitzer Prize-winning collection:
A Temporary Matter
When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine
Interpreter of Maladies
A Real Durwan
Sexy
This Blessed House
The Treatment of Bibi Haldar
The Third and Final Continent

Here is a link to The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. protuberant
    curving, jutting, or bulging outward
    Mr. Sen, a short, stocky man with slightly protuberant eyes and glasses with black rectangular frames, had been there, too.
  2. sari
    a draped dress worn primarily by Hindu women
    She wore a shimmering white sari patterned with orange paisleys, more suitable for an evening affair than for that quiet, faintly drizzling August afternoon.
  3. paisley
    a fabric with a colorful swirled pattern of curved shapes
    She wore a shimmering white sari patterned with orange paisleys, more suitable for an evening affair than for that quiet, faintly drizzling August afternoon.
  4. vermilion
    a vivid red to reddish-orange color
    ...he could see the perfectly centered part in her braided hair, which was shaded with crushed vermilion and therefore appeared to be blushing. At first Eliot had wondered if she had cut her scalp, or if something had bitten her there.
  5. concoction
    any foodstuff made by combining different ingredients
    His mother nibbled Mrs. Sen’s concoctions with eyes cast upward, in search of an opinion.
  6. distracted
    having the attention diverted especially because of anxiety
    She was continuously distracted. She stopped the car without warning to listen to something on the radio, or to stare at something, anything, in the road. If she passed a person, she waved. If she saw a bird twenty feet in front of her, she beeped the horn with her index finger and waited for it to fly away.
  7. incomprehensible
    difficult to understand
    At first Eliot found Mrs. Sen’s anxiety incomprehensible; his mother had a p.o. box in town, and she collected mail so infrequently that once their electricity was cut off for three days.
  8. riotous
    produced or growing in extreme abundance
    Subsequently she spoke in her own language, rapid and riotous to Eliot’s ears; it was clear that she was reading the contents of the letter, word by word.
  9. tenure
    the right to keep a job permanently, especially a teaching job
    “My sister has had a baby girl. By the time I see her, depending if Mr. Sen gets his tenure, she will be three years old. Her own aunt will be a stranger. If we sit side by side on a train she will not know my face."
  10. reimburse
    pay back for some expense incurred
    When Eliot’s mother arrived at quarter to six, Mr. Sen told her the details of the accident and offered a check reimbursing November’s payment.
Created on Tue May 16 10:05:25 EDT 2017 (updated Wed Jul 23 13:54:32 EDT 2025)

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