A Temporary Matter is a story about grief and the secrets
people keep from one another. Husband and wife Shukumar and Shoba are reeling
from the loss of their child six months earlier. They avoid each other and
their friends, Shoba filling her time with work and Shukumar procrastinating in
finishing his dissertation. A deus-ex-machina in the form of systematic power
outages allows for intimacy between the couple not achieved since the death of
their son.
The importance of communication within a marriage is a
prevalent theme in Interpreter of Maladies.
Here the sorrow of the lost child causes a communication breakdown in the
relationship of Shukumar and Shoba. This silence between them eventually
destroys them because, in their grief, Shukumar and Shoba grow to become
different people. Since they no longer share experiences, the couple grows
apart. Their final secrets are painful ones – Shoba intends to move out and
Shukumar violates the wishes of his wife by revealing the gender of the child.
Secrecy eventually leads to broken trust. Ultimately, it is the baby who will
never cry who tears the two apart.
A Temporary Matter is told from the third-person perspective
of Shukumar. Though the narrator is omniscient, we understand the events in the
story through his experiences. The story unfolds largely in memory as each item
Shukumar touches triggers a memory to a happier time in the couple’s life
together. For instance, the birthday candles used during the blackout remind
him of a surprise party Shoba threw for him. Only through Shoba’s confessions
do we fully appreciate her point of view in this story about the end of a
marriage.
Environment plays a key role in the story. The darkness is
both a metaphor for Shukumar and Shoba’s relationship and a safe space for the
couple to bond. Both have been groping around in the dark for the sense of
normalcy that was destroyed by the death of their child. The planned blackouts
force an intimacy that the couple hasn’t known for a long time. By the second
day, they are so liberated by the darkness that they begin to anticipate it.
Finally, they turn off the lights when the planned outages cease. Darkness
ushers in intimacy, which allows the couple to make love for the first time
since the child’s death. By the end of the week, the snow outside begins to
melt. This thawing mimics the freedom both Shukumar and Shoba now feel from
their grief. Though both are now in pain stemming from the end of their marriage,
they are feeling once again.
Food, an important part of Indian culture, also plays a
significant role in this story. Shoba’s trips to the market are exhilarating
for Shukumar in the beginning of their marriage. In happier times, Shoba would
prepare lavish meals and a particular gourmet cake for his birthday. Shoba
would buy in bulk and prepare meals and chutneys that could be warmed and
served in the matter of moments. In this way, their home was always open to
others and always filled with love. After the baby’s death, Shukumar started
running through the provisions prepared by Shoba. This is a symbol of their
dwindling affections and the unpredictability of life. Ultimately, Shoba is
unable to control or prepare for the worst.
Jhumpa Lahiri
Nilanjana Sudeshna "Jhumpa" Lahiri was born in
London and brought up in South Kingstown, Rhode Island. Brought up in America
by a mother who wanted to raise her children to be Indian, she learned about
her Bengali heritage from an early age.
Lahiri graduated from South Kingstown High School and later
received her B.A. in English literature from Barnard College in 1989. She then
received multiple degrees from Boston University: an M.A. in English, an M.A.
in Creative Writing, an M.A. in Comparative Literature and a Ph.D. in
Renaissance Studies. She took up a fellowship at Provincetown's Fine Arts Work
Center, which lasted for the next two years (1997-1998).
In 2001, she married Alberto Vourvoulias-Bush, a journalist
who was then Deputy Editor of TIME Latin America Lahiri currently lives in
Brooklyn with her husband and two children. She has been a Vice President of
the PEN American Center since 2005.
Lahiri taught creative writing at Boston University and the
Rhode Island School of Design. Much of her short fiction concerns the lives of
Indian-Americans, particularly Bengalis.
She received the following awards, among others:
1999 - PEN/Hemingway Award (Best Fiction Debut of the Year)
for Interpreter of Maladies;
2000 - The New Yorker's Best Debut of the Year for
Interpreter of Maladies;
2000 - Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her debut Interpreter
of Maladies.
Dr. Jolly Diagnostic Centre was started under the guidance of Dr. Suneet Jolly in the year 2000. Dr. Jolly has worked with leading hospitals of Delhi like National Heart Institute, Malhotra Heart Institute prior to starting this Centre. Dr. Jolly Diagnostic Centre in Greater Kailash, Delhi, India
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