A Temporary Matter

This story captures elements of the Indian American experience, a recurring topic of Lahiri’s, while also navigating the interplay between love and loss. The story is told in the third-person omniscient from the point of view of Shukumar. In focusing on Shukumar in the Boston home, this “close third” narrative style steadily builds tension, underscores the growing divide between the couple, and allows for situational irony, in which events do not occur as expected.

Lahiri uses the electric company notices to frame the story. In the opening scene, Shoba regards the notice of power disruption as an annoyance. Later, on the fifth day, Shukumar regards the notice of completion as a disappointment. The titular “temporary matter” literally refers to the upcoming power outages. Figuratively, the title is also a metaphor for two possible marital outcomes: The “temporary matter” can refer to either the transitional period of grief the couple is experiencing, or it can refer to the end of Shoba and Shukumar’s marriage. In the story’s denouement, Lahiri does not clarify whether the couple’s marriage is truly over. In excluding a decisive outcome, Lahiri allows the reader to focus on the significance of Shoba and Shukumar’s shared moment of truth and grief. Through Shoba and Shukumar, Lahiri explores themes of Loss and Grief, Intimacy and Marriage, and Deception.

From the onset of the story, the mood is tense. Lahiri introduces the marital tension between Shoba and Shukumar through their initial exchanges. An uncomfortable and foreboding listlessness defines their forced interactions. Both Shoba’s indifference toward Shukumar and Shukumar’s indifference toward self-care indicate that their marriage is crumbling: “[H]e and Shoba had become experts at avoiding each other in their three-bedroom house, spending as much time on separate floors as possible” (4). The narration hints at an unknown event that caused the couple’s indifference, and Lahiri uses flashbacks to reveal the circumstances surrounding Shoba and Shukumar’s marriage: They lost their baby during delivery six months prior.

However, Lahiri introduces other cultural and social circumstances that characterize the couple. Shukumar, a career academic, is insecure about still being a student at 35 years old. He views himself as a “mediocre student” who does not have the focus or motivation to complete his dissertation. Shukumar has isolated himself in the house and rarely leaves. He cannot muster the will to brush his teeth, let alone shop nearby for fruit or wine. His inability to be an active participant in his life and the world beyond suggests that he could be experiencing depression.

In turn, Shoba finds elements of her personality, humanity, and cultural identity all slipping away from her. Shoba’s fading beauty as seen through the eyes of Shukumar is coupled with an impending sense of disinterest. Her type A personality has given way to a disorganized, disconnected existence. Shoba is now unable to even keep track of the days. Furthermore, Shoba has lost the motivation to cook, a skill that previously defined her. Food is symbolic of connection, and Shoba’s penciled-in improvements to old family recipes were emblematic of her role as a second-generation Indian American, improving and modernizing traditional customs. Cooking is a recurring motif that represents the sharing of one’s love and the nourishment of relationships. Cooking was Shoba’s way of entertaining large groups, a means to tie her to the community around her. By forfeiting these duties to Shukumar, she is giving up one of her primary tethers to the social world. Like Shukumar, Shoba is stuck in her own cycle of depression and grief.

Another recurring motif is travel, which represents trauma and develops the theme of Loss and Grief. Again, through flashbacks, Lahiri depicts parallel visits from the mothers-in-law. After the pregnancy loss, Shoba’s mother stays with the couple for two months in Boston to dutifully attend to their domestic needs. She is emotionally detached yet diligently provides physical care. Before the pregnancy loss, Shukumar’s mother stays with the couple for two weeks to mourn the loss of Shukumar’s father, who passed 12 years prior. Shukumar’s mother is perpetually distraught and needs emotional support and care. Although she cooks for the couple, she only prepares meals Shukumar’s father liked. In this way, Shukumar’s mother is unable to see beyond her grief and is a foil to Shoba’s mother. In both instances, the women travel due to a loss. The juxtaposition of how Shoba and Shukumar’s mothers cope signifies that Shoba and Shukumar are unable to grieve together in a healthy, progressive way.

The emotional chasm between Shoba and Shukumar is evident in how the narration portrays Shoba. Shukumar describes her as “barricaded” behind her work with her “arsenal of colored pencils” (7). This metaphorical language depicts Shoba as emotionally guarded and distanced from Shukumar. Shoba’s appearance and actions also foreshadow her climatic confession. Shoba uses the veil of darkness to build up the courage to tell Shukumar that she intends to leave him. The rising action of the story parallels the couple’s candlelit confessions, which are symbolically significant. Light is a universal symbol for knowledge and hope, and the couple is only able to share their truths in darkness with only the dim natural light of a candle. The act of eating, like cooking, is a motif that develops the theme of Intimacy and Marriage. In the months following their shared loss, the couple took to eating separately and without pleasure. The couple’s once-again shared meals signal their burgeoning intimacy and usher the story’s mood from tense to optimistic: “As he made love to her he wondered what he would say to her the next night, and what she would say, the thought of it exciting him” (19). Shukumar’s excitement highlights his belief that he and Shoba are headed toward marital reconciliation. Although Shoba and Shukumar initially expect the power outages to be an inconvenience, the couple comes to look forward to the evenings cloaked in darkness. This is an example of situational irony, in which events do not unfold as expected.

Thematically, Lahiri uses Deception as the means through which Shoba and Shukumar reveal their hidden truths. Lahiri reveals the story’s climatic situational irony on the final night: Shoba announces her plans to move out, and the mood turns somber. Shukumar responds to Shoba’s painful confession with one of his own. He reveals his biggest secret, one that he has kept to spare Shoba: “Our baby was a boy […] His skin was more red than brown. He had black hair on his head. He weighed almost five pounds. His fingers were curled shut, just like yours in the night” (22). This confession is Shukumar’s last attempt to connect his grief with Shoba’s. Throughout the story, both characters navigate their depression and loss alone. Shoba feels alone in the belief that Shukumar was not present at the hospital, and Shukumar feels alone in having held their deceased son before Shoba woke up. In holding the baby, Shukumar had the opportunity to begin “the process of grieving” (22). However, he experienced this process without Shoba. By revealing the sex and some of the characteristics of the child to Shoba, Shukumar is allowing his wife to finally come to terms with and accept the loss she experienced. While it is unclear whether this confession will impede Shoba’s decision to move into her own apartment, Shukumar’s revelation can be interpreted two-fold: as both a way to hurt Shoba and as a way to help her recover.