Response to "A Temporary Matter"

What I like most about this piece is how the author included elements from her culture into the story. I feel like sometimes stories like this focus a lot on people trying to "Americanize" themselves, but Shoba  and Shukumar seem extremely proud of where they come from, and you can see this by the way they still incorporate Indian food into their meals and especially when they practice Indian ceremonies.

The ending of this story caught me off guard, mainly because I inferred from the title that the relationship issues Shoba and Shukumar were experiencing were, well, temporary. However it is clear that when Shoba turns off the lights she is simultaneously extinguishing their relationship. This surprised me too, because I feel that if I were fairly new to a country I would be scared to go out on my own. I think if I had been Shoba or Shukumar, I would've craved the predicability and familiarity of the other. Possibly, however, the author's title will still come into play in the future, and the two will reconcile. I would like to think they would anyway.

However, I really enjoyed how easy this was to read and I didn't feel like I was trying to figure out some deep "hidden" meaning. The use of flashbacks were effective in showing the raising conflict in the couple's relationship and helped me to better understand the couple's personalities/characteristics.