Shoba begins to bury herself in with her work. Shukumar finds it hard to get motivated for anything any more; he spends most days pretending to be working on his thesis. As a result, Shukumar has fallen out of love with Shoba. He is starting to notice her imperfections.
"Each day, Shukumar noticed, her beauty, which had once over whelmed him, seemed to fade."p14.
Another theme that is explored is Appearance and Reality. In this Blessed house Sanjeev and Twinkle appear to have the perfect life. They both have good jobs, with promising futures. Sanjeev is making excellent progress in engineering career. They live in a lovely, nicely presented house, and Twinkle is admired by all of his work colleagues. .
They do not seem to genuinely love each other. This grows increasingly frustrating for Sanjeev. At home they are different people; Twinkle is bubbly and fun to be around opposed to Sanjeev serious and boring personality. These personality differences causes them dispute over the small things, which would not worry a normal loving, happy couple.
"He was getting no where with her" p147.
All of the characters in Lahiri's Stories have the need to be loved and wanted. In "Interpreter of Maladies", Mr. Kapasi is attracted to Mrs. Das. Mr. Kapasi loves the attention he gets from Mrs. Das, when she shows an interest in his job and life. Mr. Kapasi's wife resents her husband's job. But Mrs. Das finds the word "romantic" to describe Mr. Kapasi's job, as a Doctors assistant.
Mr. Kapasi's attraction is so strong for Mrs. Das that he finds himself feeling like a young schoolboy in the way he acts around her.
"He did not know what he would say or do he would tell her what a pleasing smile she had. .he would take her hand". p60.
Boori Ma, from "A Real Durwan" is lonely, and has a real need to feel wanted. She has no family, no status, and very minimal possessions. Boori Ma would like to believe that she is stronger than she actually is.