Interpreter of Maladies: "The Treatment of Bibi Haldar"

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
Mrs. Sen's
This Blessed House
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. delirium
    a usually brief state of excitement and mental confusion
    Liable to fall unconscious and enter, at any moment, into a shameless delirium, Bibi could be trusted neither to cross a street nor board a tram without supervision.
  2. privation
    the act of stripping someone of food, money, or rights
    Each day she unloaded her countless privations upon us, until it became unendurably apparent that Bibi wanted a man.
  3. malaise
    a feeling of mild sickness or depression
    Her soliloquies mawkish, her sentiments maudlin, malaise dripped like a fever from her pores.
  4. conjugal
    relating to the relationship between a wife and husband
    Needless to say, Bibi was delighted by the diagnosis, and began at once to prepare for conjugal life.
  5. bane
    something causing misery or death
    He said that anyone who wished to see her could observe her for themselves, weeping and wailing and warding off customers. She was a bane for business, he told her, a liability and a loss.
  6. liability
    something that holds you back
    He said that anyone who wished to see her could observe her for themselves, weeping and wailing and warding off customers. She was a bane for business, he told her, a liability and a loss.
  7. vindicate
    show to be right by providing justification or proof
    When two months had passed without a single reply to the advertisement, Haldar and his wife felt vindicated. “Now do you see that she is unfit to marry? Now do you see no man of sane mind would touch her?”
  8. sedative
    tending to soothe or tranquilize
    She needed a blanket, a compress, a sedative tablet. She needed supervision. But when we reached the courtyard Haldar and his wife would not have her in the flat.
  9. hysterical
    characterized by a state of violent mental agitation
    "The medical risk is too great for an expectant mother to be in contact with an hysterical person,” he insisted.
  10. recuperate
    restore to good health or strength
    Within a month Bibi had recuperated from the birth, and with the money that Haldar had left her, she had the storage room whitewashed, and placed padlocks on the window and doors.
Created on Tue May 16 10:07:11 EDT 2017 (updated Wed Jul 23 13:53:05 EDT 2025)

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