Double Meaning

" 'I have terrible urges, Mr. Kapasi, to throw things away. One day I had the urge to throw everything I own out the window, the television, the children, everything. Don't you think it's unhealthy?' He was silent. 'Mr. Kapasi, don't you have anything to say? I thought that was your job." -pg 163

It is obvious that Mr. Kapasi does not actually love Mrs. Das. He may not even like her. However, he has a particular experience, that makes her interesting and oddly attractive to him. His own wife doesn't love him. So when Mrs. Das wanders into his life and seems to be the American counterpart to his Indian wife. Mrs. Das takes an interest in Mr. Kapasi; perhaps because she doesn't seem to have an interest in anything else. She isn't nice, or even particularly beautiful, but she has what she considers a curable malady, so she presents it to Mr. Kapasi in order to get his attention, which works. She knows he isn't a doctor, and she knows that her problem with her husband isn't actually an injury. But she tells it to him anyway. Here, the title of the short story comes into clearer focus. "Interpreter of Maladies" can be a man who works in a doctor's office, translating medical issues from one language to another. Or, he can be a man who listens to ails of an American's marital life, and offers an insight that is not welcomed. Whether she accepts it as a cure or not is up to her.