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When Lahiri reveals this growth to be false—when Shoba and Shukumar’s rekindled relationship leads only to them revealing hurtful, alienating truths to one another—Shukumar leaves the table, and “carrie[s] the plates to the sink.” By removing the dinner plates from the table, Shukumar symbolically removes the possibility of renewed intimacy in his marriage.

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Six months before the story takes place, Shukumar and his wife, Shoba, had been expecting their first child. When Shoba reveals that she’s found an apartment and will be leaving Shukumar, he feels relief, for he admits to no longer loving his wife. Shukumar feels guilty for being away from Shoba during the tragedy, and he questions whether he even deserves to mourn their dead child. While Shukumar was away at a conference, Shoba went into early labor and the baby was born as a stillbirth

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There were endless boxes of pasta in all shapes and colors, zippered sacks of basmati rice, whole sides of lambs and goats.” But Shoba hasn’t shopped since the stillbirth, and Shukumar notes that “they’d eaten it all by now.” Just as Shoba’s precisely-stocked food supply has diminished, so too has her motivation to plan. The reader learns that Shoba works as a proofreader, “search[ing] for typographical errors in textbooks and mark[ing] them […] with an assortment of colored pencils.” Shukumar admits that “he envie[s] her [for] the specificity of her task, so unlike the elusive nature of his.” Shoba orients her life around what she can plan for. Before the stillbirth, Shoba measured her success by her ability to plan and organize her life in the most efficient, effective way possible.

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Although Shoba gave Shukumar her blessing to attend the conference, Shukumar insists that he “hadn’t wanted to go.” Lahiri emphasizes Shukumar’s hesitancy to leave Shoba through his vivid recollection of the last time he saw Shoba pregnant: “Each time he thought of that moment […] it was the cab he remembered most, a station wagon, painted red with blue lettering.” Lahiri’s choice to preface Shukumar’s memory with “Each time” reveals that Shukumar constantly replays this moment in his mind—he sees it as the instant he made the wrong decision.

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I think this story is too depressing for my taste. However, I can relate to Shoba and Shukumar's struggle. The writer does a great job at portraying the emotions experienced by someone who's faced loss.

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I think this story is too depressing for my taste. However, I can relate to Shoba and Shukumar's struggle. The writer does a great job at portraying the emotions experienced by someone who's faced loss.

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As readers we expect the couple to reunite and resolve their conflict by the end of the story however, that is not the case. Instead, the couple have created a rift between each other that by the end it is impossible to fix.

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The death of their baby marks the start of deterioration of their relationship.
The sweats that Shoba always wears and Shukumar's yellow teeth symbolize the couple's inner turmoil as they are unable to care for themselves.

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 “The more Shoba stayed out, the more she began putting in extra hours at work and taking on additional projects, the more he wanted to stay in, not even leaving to get the mail, or to buy fruit or wine at the stores by the trolley shop.”

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 “The more Shoba stayed out, the more she began putting in extra hours at work and taking on additional projects, the more he wanted to stay in, not even leaving to get the mail, or to buy fruit or wine at the stores by the trolley shop.”

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Shoba's inner conflict is shown by her disheveled look. Moreover, Shukumar's loneliness displays his sorrow as he is unwilling to do the simplest tasks.

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"Our baby was a boy. His skin was more red than brown. He had black hair on his head. He weighed almost five pounds. His fingers were curled shut, just like yours in the night." - Shukumar

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"Our baby was a boy. His skin was more red than brown. He had black hair on his head. He weighed almost five pounds. His fingers were curled shut, just like yours in the night." - Shukumar

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Shukumar's guilt prevents him from communicating with Shoba.
When he attempts to talk about her miscarriage with her mother, she points out that 'he wasn't even there'. This makes him feel guilty, as he believes his pain isn't valid due to not having experienced it firsthand, and prolongs his grief due to not being able to express it.

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I personally didn't like the ending as there was no clear resolution to Shoba and Shukumar's relationship. Did they end up separating? Did they reconcile? We'll never know.

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Shoba and Shukumar's lives revolve around avoiding each other due to their lack of communication.
It is said in the text that Shukumar wants to stay in the longer Shoba stays out. This shows that he is reluctant to initiate communication with her due to the pre-established lack of it, and consequently shapes his life around avoiding her.

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The Bear Came Over the Mountain - Narrative style in framing the protagonist and his wife's relationship in comparison to events that he reflects on happening throughout it

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He avoids his wife rather than directly speak to her after her miscarriage and lets his life revolve around her actions; as evidenced by him fearing to put a record on in his own house out of fear of annoying her.