Life is fill with many ups and downs for human beings. Some highlights may be graduating from college, marrying the one you love, or the birth of your first child while a low point in life may include the death of a relative. These ideas are common to most people and can be assumed to be a natural part of life. However, imagine a life in which none of the highpoints of life are realized and only the low points are present. Life without balance between high and low points would be unbearable for any person and will eventually lead to self-destruction. Author of Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri illustrates this point in her story "The Treatment of Bibi". .
This story is about a woman that has live her entire life in despair. The main character of this story is Bibi. Bibi has found herself stricken with a disease that no one is able to cure. During the worse stages of her illness she finds herself convulsing from head to toe uncontrollably. These seizures come on her at any time and leave unexpectedly. The existence of her medical condition has given her an additional problem; she is disconnected from the world. She is a 29-year-old single woman that has had no connection with the outside world aside from a few visits to the pond and interaction with people that come into the store. Lahiri writes in her novel, "She was not allowed to watch television (Haldar assumed its electronic properties would excite her), and was thus ignorant of the events and entertainments of our world"(Lahiri 163). This kind of separation adds to the anguish experienced from the lack of balance in her life. .
When Bibi was born her mother was killed from complications of the delivery and this left Bibi to be raise by her father and other relatives that all live together. The family members that occupied the same living quarters, as did Bibi were occupied with their lives and caring for their children and therefore failed to pay much attention to Bibi outside of providing the necessities of life.