Jhumpa Lahiri is an American Indian author who enjoys writing primarily about the experiences of other American Indians. She is a very successful author. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his first novel, and his novels appear frequently in the New Yorker. One such work from 1998 is a short story, “A Temporary Matter,” about a husband and wife, Shukumar and Shoba, whose electricity will be temporarily cut off for one hour for five days. It seems simple enough, but as you read the story you discover that perhaps their marriage is the “temporary issue.” The title is interesting from the start. It gives us hints about the setting, the characters and their situation, as well as outlining the entire theme of the story. The story revolves around two big things, the death of a child and the breakdown of Shukumar and Shoba's marriage. Even though this is the case, he also focuses a lot on the little things. Lahiri uses small details to highlight the pain and lack of communication between Shukumar and Shoba. When Shukumar thinks back to the last time he saw Shoba pregnant, he doesn't remember whether she looked happy or sad, he remembers much smaller things, like the taxi. “Every time he thought about that moment, the last moment he saw Shoba pregnant, it was the taxi he remembered most, a station wagon, painted red with blue lettering. It was cavernous compared to their car. Although Shukumar was six feet tall and had hands too large to fit comfortably in his jeans pockets, he felt small in the back seat. As reckless as it may seem, this is actually the number of people who remember important events in their lives. Important events do not pass through our memory as sequential narratives, but in a series of random feelings, sens... in the center of the card... all the small, but important details. Finally, we understand that all this time Shoba was trying to tell Shukumar that she was looking for an apartment and that she finally found one. Shukumar is relieved, but at the same time disgusted by the thought of her wanting a life apart from him. This pushes him to share information that is sacred to Shoba in hopes that it will always remain her mystery; the sex of their baby. We are left with a cliffhanger. All we know is the information that the last sentence gives us: “They will cry together, for the first time in their lives, for the things they now knew.” Perhaps their crying is a sign that they come together to cry. It marks another turning point in their lives, just like when they lost their son. We just don't know if that turning point is them being together or crying knowing they're going their separate ways.