Just happened to read “temporary mater” by “Jhumpa Lehree”,

Left many questions unanswered.

The characters are Shobha and Shukumar,

Who are passionately in love,after some meetings ……… end up marrying each other..

Shobha n Shukumar who longed to be together,

But suddenly something changes the nexus between them…

Shobha and Shukumar who shared a conjugal harmony between them, A pregnancy which left broken cords and a dead child,

She couldn’t even see!

They were never like this before,

Now they had to struggle to say something to each other,

He struggled to make her look up from her plate and look a him once..

Shukumar noticed that her beauty,

That seemed to overwhelm him, seemed to fade.

The cosmetics that had seemed superfluous, were necessary now,

Not to improve, but to define her somehow…

He couldn’t recall last time they were together or got a photograph..

There had been created a long void..

And then suddenly a notice informed it was a “temporary matter”,

For 5 days their electricity would be cut off daily for an hour..

5 days,

Leaving 5 dark hours together…

Five days to it all…

These 5 days actually opened up some unfolded cards on both sides...

After six months, she finally spoke.

When he was preparing meals day in and out,

” you were not even there in hospital when I needed you the most”

Next day he told her about his inclination to a prettier woman, when she was going out of shape.

Next day about his drinking in the bar,

3^rd day he informed her, his selling away the sweater she had gifted him…

And the 4^th day she confessed that she never liked the only poem he had published ever..

4^th day there hands finally met after long..

How much had he been longing for the warmth,

They carefully walked over to the bed.

Feeling together for the final moment

She wept silently today when he was close.

Morning of the 5^th night, the lines had been prepared…

At dawn he returned happier then ever,

Shobha wanted to talk something important…he attempted closing the lights…

But today she wanted her to see him, when she spoke

She had used the same words while telling about her pregnancy

Somewhere deep inside a fear surmounted him…

She clasped her hands and after gaining all her strength, finally said.

“She wanted to move out!”

Shukumar never knew she had spent the past evening’s planning a life without him.

When he thought she was returning back.

He was relieved now, as well as sicker.

Now may be it was his turn to speak.

He said he never wanted to tell her this,

But her baby was a boy.

His skin was more red than brown,

He had black hair,

He weighed five pounds,

His fingers curled slowly, like yours in night…

Shobha looked at him now,

His face contorted with sorrow.

Yes he had cheated her.

Ripped a picture of a woman in magazine,

Returned a sweater,

Got drunk in day,

These were the things he had told her.

He had held “his” son, who had known life only within “her”,

Against the darkened room in the hospital,

Till the nurse took him away forever..

And he promised himself he would never tell this to Shobha till he lived with her,

He stood up picked up the dishes,

Washed his hands and then joined her again...

They wept together for things they did not know!