A Temporary Matter

“Each time he thought of that moment, the last moment he saw Shoba pregnant, it was the cab he remembered most, a station wagon, painted red with blue lettering. It was cavernous compared to their own car.”

Shukumar’s recollection of the last time he saw his wife pregnant focuses on the cab that was taking him away rather than on any element of their relationship. Shukumar’s retrospective focus reveals his self-centered worldview. He struggles to externalize or feel any real empathy for his wife. Additionally, the red and blue lettering on the station wagon reflects the complexities of his emotions—a combination of sadness and anger.

“In the beginning he had believed that it would pass, that he and Shoba would get through it all somehow. She was only thirty-three. She was strong, on her feet again. But it wasn’t a consolation.”

The story progressively depicts Shukumar as clinging to an optimistic outcome for him and Shoba, yet this passage reveals his true feelings. Shukumar has already accepted that they are unable to save their marriage and unwittingly places the blame on Shoba. However, Shukumar’s lack of self-awareness reflects the theme of Deception.

“For some reason the room did not haunt him the way it haunted Shoba. In January, when he stopped working at his carrel in the library, he set up his desk there deliberately, partly because the room soothed him, and partly because it was a place Shoba avoided.”

This passage develops the theme of Loss and Grief and shows how Shoba and Shukumar cope with loss differently. Shukumar recognizes that he is experiencing grief differently than his wife, but he does not have any explanation for the difference beyond “for some reason.” Shukumar is unable to connect and empathize with his wife, so he decides to simply avoid contact as a coping mechanism.

“They weren’t like this before. Now he had to struggle to say something that interested her, something that made her look up from her plate, or from her proofreading files. Eventually he gave up trying to amuse her. He learned not to mind the silences.”

Lahiri characterizes Shukumar as someone who is comfortable with resigning himself to the realities of situations. Rather than continue to put in the work that a good marriage requires, Shukumar simply accepts the silences, never stopping to think about whether Shoba feels similarly. This excerpt hints that Shukumar harbors his own resentment toward Shoba.

“The birthday candles had burned out, but he pictured her face clearly in the dark, the wide tilting eyes, the full grape-toned lips, the fall at age two from her high chair still visible as a comma on her chin. Each day, Shukumar noticed, her beauty, which had once overwhelmed him, seemed to fade. The cosmetics that had seemed superfluous were necessary now, not to improve her but to define her somehow.”

Shukumar experiences both a diminishing emotional connection and physical attraction to his wife. He implies that the proper “definition” of her is one that resembles the more youthful woman he had fallen in love with. His attempt to fix her in time and place suggests why he is unable to address their present relationship and develops the theme of Intimacy and Marriage.

“His heart quickened. All day Shukumar had looked forward to the lights going out. He thought about what Shoba had said the night before, about looking in his address book. It felt good to remember her as she was then, how bold yet nervous she’d been when they first met, how hopeful.”

Lahiri employs situational irony by showing a subtle movement toward repair and recovery at this moment in the story. This is the most optimistic part of the story, and the reader may infer that the relationship between the married couple will continue to improve. This is, however, not how the story unfolds.

“Somehow, without saying anything, it had turned into this. Into an exchange of confessions—the little ways they’d hurt or disappointed each other, and themselves. The following day Shukumar thought for hours about what to say to her.”

The “game” that Shoba and Shukumar develop becomes a way for them to clear themselves of guilty deceptions, both of themselves and of their spouse. This cathartic release results in an excitement that Shukumar cannot shake, and it seems like his life begins to regain some of its former meaning while wondering what to say in the dark the next night. The couple’s candlelit confessions develop the themes of Deception and Intimacy and Marriage.

“Something happened when the house was dark. They were able to talk to each other again.”

The motif of light and dark is at the fore, which Lahiri uses to develop the theme of Deception. She explores how darkness allows Shoba and Shukumar to be honest with each other without being vulnerable. Since they have been keeping each other in the dark about big secrets, stepping into physical darkness allows Shoba and Shukumar to remain in a space where they can comfortably share with each other.

“He had planned on making shrimp malai for Shoba, but when he arrived at the store he didn’t feel like cooking anymore. It wasn’t the same, he thought, knowing that the lights wouldn’t go out. In the store the shrimp looked gray and thin. The coconut milk tin was dusty and overpriced.”

Without the prospect of candlelit dinners, Shukumar reverts to the lackluster disposition he felt prior to the power outages. The excitement associated with cooking for and eating with Shoba wears off for Shukumar, who has come to enjoy the intimate nights with his wife.

“Only he didn’t want her to be pregnant again. He didn’t want to have to pretend to be happy.”

Before learning that Shoba plans to leave him, Shukumar believes she is going to tell him that she is pregnant, and he dreads the news. In saying that he would have to “pretend to be happy,” he is finally admitting to himself that he no longer sees a future with Shoba.

“She wouldn’t look at him, but he stared at her. It was obvious that she’d rehearsed the lines. All this time she’d been looking for an apartment, testing the water pressure, asking a Realtor if heat and hot water were included in the rent. It sickened Shukumar, knowing that she had spent these past evenings preparing for a life without him.”

This climatic moment illustrates the story’s key situational irony. Until this point, readers, like Shukumar, believe that the couple is heading toward a reconciliation. However, Lahiri reveals the purpose of the game, and Shukumar has an epiphany: Shoba has not been preparing their meals or stockpiling dry goods because she has been preparing to leave. This betrayal supports the theme of Deception.

“‘Our baby was a boy,’ he said. ‘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.’”

After breaking the news that she is leaving Shukumar, Shoba receives shocking news in return. The sex of her baby had been one thing she hoped she would never learn. Shukumar dashes that hope with five simple yet biting sentences. In doing so, he undermines her long-held resentment toward him while finally expressing his own grief.

“He had held his son, who had known life only within her, against his chest in a darkened room in an unknown wing of the hospital. He had held him until a nurse knocked and took him away, and he promised himself that day that he would never tell Shoba, because he still loved her then, and it was the one thing in her life that she had wanted to be a surprise.”

Lahiri uses juxtaposition to contrast Shukumar holding his lifeless baby against his chest with Shoba containing their then-living baby inside her womb. One of the reasons Shoba and Shukumar could never reconcile their grief is because Shukumar was unable to express his feelings. In finally doing so, Shukumar is also able to admit that he no longer loves Shoba.