A Temporary Matter By Jhumpa Lahiri

Children can be the best thing to happen to two people who are in a relationship. They can bring joy, laughter and love and they can bring the people closer than they ever thought possible. Other times, however, children can cause turmoil in a relationship. The presence of children can affect each person in the relationship in different ways. It can cause communication gaps and arguments. Children can be a blessing, but also a curse for some relationships. The presence of children can cause an already weak relationship to weaken even further. In Jhumpa Lahiri’s collection of short stories, Interpreter of Maladies, the idea that children can weaken a relationship appears in the stories “Interpreter of Maladies”, “Sexy”, and “A Temporary Matter”.
In Lahiri’s “A Temporary Matter”, the reader is introduced to Shoba, a woman who seems disorganized and who seems to not care about her looks, and her husband Shukumar. It is clear that the couple has been having difficulty communicating with one another and that their relationship has been drastically changed. The story is narrated in Shukumar’s point of view and he tells the reader stories about how the relationship used to be. He tells about how Shoba used to be a neat and organized person, but now she is somewhat lazy and messy. The reader also learns that Shoba used to cook for the two of them but now, Shukumar does all the cooking and cleaning in the house while Shoba works overtime every day. It is revealed to the reader that months prior to the start of the story, a pregnant Shoba went into labor and her child was born dead. Shukumar was not present when this occurred because he was at a conference which Shoba pushed him to go to. On his way to the conference he is thinking about what it will be like when the baby is born. He says, “He imagined a day when he and Shoba might need to buy a station wagon of their own, to cart their children back and forth from music lessons and dentist appointments” (Lahiri 3). This quote shows that he is very excited to become a parent and it also demonstrates his guilt that he was not there when Shoba miscarried. Throughout the course of the story, the couple reveals things to one another that they have never told. On the last night, Shoba reveals that she is moving out, and Shukumar reveals that he held their baby before it was cremated. This is particularly hard on Shoba because she herself did not even hold the baby. Shoba’s miscarriage caused a major communication gap between the couple. Since they never took the time to talk about it when it happened, they both had pent up feelings which they were unable to share with