A Very Familiar Scene

Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies begins with a scene many of us have been in.  This story seems to almost poke fun at the frantic American scene of a family forces to be with each other.  The two parents or notably immature, as Mr. Kaspi first noticed "that they were very young, perhaps not even thirty" (Lahiri).  The family bickers over silly things, such as taking a small child to the bathroom.  They constantly seem to be at odds with one another, fighting and frantically barking orders to each other.  The father of the family seems overly intrigued with the romance of Mr. Kaspi's other job, being a translator.  The father indulges in the stories of his clients, but Kaspi feels his career is a failure.  This could symbolize that sometimes the romance of an idea to somebody isn't so romantic to everybody.  The end was an interesting one, as a child wanders of and is attacked by monkeys, forcing the parents to try to help until Mr. Kaspi steps in.  In all this commotion, the paper with his address flies away in the breeze, further complicating the matter.