Jhumpa Lahiri’s “Interpreter of Maladies”

This is an interesting story with the setting being a intricate part. The setting is in India where Mr. and Mrs. Das are touring. Their tour guide is Mr. Kapasi. Mr. and Mrs. Das are Indians touring India and Mr. Kapasi is their tour guide, and from India. I find it interesting how right away in the story Mr. Kapasi notices that Mr. and Mrs. Das are, in fact, Indian, but dress like tourist. It's very true though, you can always tell a tourist from a local, like Mr. Das with the camera around their neck, pamphlets in hand, and reciting facts that sound like they are straight out of the pamphlet. Though they had their differences in one being from India and Mr. and Mrs. Das being from America, they had similar cultural struggles. Mr. Kapasi was in an unhappy marriage that was set up, much like Mrs. Das describing how her and Mr. Das were set up by their parents. Now unhappy with where her life is, and feeling trapped Mrs. Das keeps it all to herself. In this way Mrs. Das and Mr. Kapasi have a lot in common.
Mr. Kapasi is an interpreter for a doctor, and Mrs. Das finds this "romantic." I'm not sure how she found it romantic, but I could understand how it is an important job. By the end of the story, I thought maybe she found it romantic as in he is the man people go to to get their problems solved. Mrs. Das, struggling to cope with her life, might see Mr. Kapasi as a man that can translate her feelings of anger and guilt, understand her inner thoughts and feelings better than her, and have him interpret it to make sense to her. That could be romantic. Who doesn't want that? Mr. Kapasi was initially flattered at this remark of his occupation being romantic, but why? I think Mr. Kapasi is feeling that same strain of being with someone, but not emotionally being with someone. Now here is a 28 year old Indian-American woman saying nice things to him, and paying attention to his stories.
I thought the ending was pretty neat. The last words Mr. Kapasi said to Mrs. Das were, "Is it really pain you feel, Mrs. Das, or is it guilt?" With that Mrs. Das angrily leaves the vehicle, eating the puffed rice, leaving trails for the monkeys to gather. He previously warned the family that if you feed the monkeys, then they may be bothersome, and sure enough they bothered little Bobby. It's significant because much like the pain, or probably guilt, Mrs. Das is feeling towards her family, she is unable to fathom the idea that it is her fault. That is the same case with the monkeys attacking Bobby. She immediately says it's the places fault for her son getting attacked, when in fact it is hers.