Sanjeev's Impressions

It takes only seven seconds for the human brain to form a first impression, but many positive encounters thereafter to counteract a negative impression. Whenever one is faced with an unfamiliar or new circumstance, they form assumptions about what the outcome will be with nothing to base this off of. This is especially true in relationships, where two people are often strangers before falling in love. Jhumpa Lahiri plays with this idea multiple times throughout the stories in Interpreter of Maladies, perhaps because there is not another time more prone to preconceptions than journeys to new places. It can be easy, however, to get stuck in these inaccurate impressions and not be able to see outside of them. In “Sexy” and “This Blessed House”,

The story cuts back and forth between the housewarming party and the events leading up to it, and in the flashbacks Lahiri shows Sanjeev’s hesitations towards Twinkle - especially with her non-traditional mannerisms and values. It is the coworkers and friends of Sanjeev, however, that do not know Twinkle that are able to give a different impression of her. Prabal, a professor at Yale, tells Sanjeev that “‘[his] wife’s wow’”, to which Sanjeev gives him a blank stare followed by blushing. Sanjeev connects this comment with his past experiences in which “Prabal had pronounced that Sophia Loren was wow, as was Audrey Hepburn” (153). At first, the idea that Twinkle is “wow”, especially coming from someone Sanjeev would admire and look up to, completely stops and stuns him, and he is unsure how to react. After a while, however, he begins to blush. This emotional response is evoked by the awareness that another person finds Twinkle’s extraordinariness comparable to that of beautiful actresses. After this interaction, the first signs of Sanjeev having positive feelings towards her are seen when he feels “a pang of anticipation at the thought of her rushing down the winding staircase” in shoes that scratch the floor (155). He compares this feeling to “the same pang he used to feel before they were married” and “when he would drive back from the airport, wondering which ascending plane in the sky was hers” (156). Even though Sanjeev is imagining Twinkle doing something he would find annoying, like scratching the floor, after the interaction with Prabal he begins to feel the same excitement and fondness towards her as he did in the first moment of their relationship. The outsider perspective here made him be able to look past Twinkle’s flaws, and see her as he did before he had any expectations