becoming communicative and restorative of emotional bonds.  However, it becomes clear that this game of communication is nothing more than setting the stage for their eventual breakup.  In the end, the relationship presented is one that lacked the fortitude and strength to endure the death of the child.  This is something that Shukumar makes sure that Shoba feels, in the attempt to make her feel as hollow and empty as he does at the moment she decides to move on from her life with him.  One can see this as being representative of how fragile the relationship had become with the death of the child.  It might also be reflective of how tenuous the relationship was to begin with, demonstrating that there might not have been that much strength in the first place in the relationship.

In "A Temporary Matter," Shoba and Shukumar ultimately fail to reconnect because they both have ventured down differing paths while dealing with the grief of their lost child (actually, one might argue that they never truly connected at the beginning of their relationship because they later reveal all the secrets that they have kept from each other over the years).  Over the nights that they have dinner together and share with each other these long held secrets, Shukumar believes that they are reconnecting, yet all the while Shoba is planning to move out of their home.  When Shoba tells Shukumar that she is leaving, he feels betrayed, and rather than sparing her grief, he decides to further the wedge between them by revealing the sex of their dead child.  So, their failure to reconnect stems from their inability to understand the needs of the other partner.

It's difficult to see how they can have a future together. They've been drifting apart for some time, and it's unlikely that a few more power cuts will be enough to get them talking again on a permanent basis.

More importantly, however, is the matter of trust. By revealing the gender of their stillborn child, Shukumar devastates Shoba; more than that, he betrays her. He knows full well that she never wanted to know this information, yet he still goes right ahead and tells her anyway, as he no longer loves her. If Shukumar no longer loves her, then it's difficult to see how the marriage can possibly survive.

For her part, Shoba reveals that she's signed a lease on an apartment so that she can have her own space away from Shukumar. It's perfectly clear that Shoba has already separated herself emotionally from her husband; all that's left to do is the physical separation.

In Jhumpa Lahiri's "A Temporary Matter," the main characters Shoba and Shukumar go through a difficult tragedy. They respond to the stillbirth in different ways, and six months later, Shoba still seems incapable of recovering fully from the loss of their baby. The trauma of the stillbirth has impacted her marriage to Shukumar in ways that the reader, like any outsider who learns of their hardship, cannot fully understand. Though outsiders and readers alike can speculate upon the possibilities of their futures, together and separate, only Shoba and Shukumar know with any certainty whether they still have a future together.

The ambiguity of the short story's ending is part of what makes the story so powerful. Literature is sometimes expected to guarantee a tidy ending for readers; after all, the writer seemingly has full control over the fictions that appear on the page. Lahiri's ability to imitate the confusion and precariousness of real life on the page is what sets her writing apart from the literature of tidy endings; real life is far from tidy, and real life is Lahiri's literary speciality.