A Devoted Son

 
Author: Anita Desai.
 
Real Name: Anita Mazumdar
 
Nationality: Indian.
 
Birth: 24 June 1937
 
Birthplace: Mussoorie, India
 
Occupation: Writer/ professor
 
Theme: It is about a devoted son who has tried his best to serve his family.
Characters

Rakesh: He is a devoted son of Verma. He is a brilliant student who gets a

 

scholarship to study in the USA.

Veena: Veena is a simple and caring housewife. She is physically fat but
 

beautiful. She is loyal and dutiful. She follows her husband Rakesh’s
orders.
Bhatia: Old neighbor of Verma family. He lives next door and often goes to
 

sit outside with Verma and complains about the difficulties they both face.
Verma’s wife: Unnamed lady. She is a fine housewife as well as caring
 

mother.
Characters

Rakesh’s children are unnamed in the story. They mostly play with their
 

grandfather. Verma takes the help of his grandchildren to bring foodstuffs

for him stealthily.
Contd.

 
The story initially appeared in Desai’s story collection named ‘Games at Twilight and
Other Stories.’
 
It was first published in 1978 by Vintage.
 
It has presented contemporary urban Indian people and their lives.
 
The story is narrated through the third-person narrator. It is based on the life of a
doctor whose name is Dr. Rakesh. He is the main character.
 
Ramesh has a poor family background. His grandparents are vegetable vendors. His
father worked so hard for forty years in a kerosene depot.
 
His father had a dream of having an educated son.
Contd-3

•
The story begins with the morning newspaper in Rakesh’s hand.
•
The morning newspaper contained the news of Rakesh’s top pass mark in the whole
country in medical examination.
•
The result of Rakesh made all family members happy . They enjoyed themselves and
neighbors arrived and congratulated him. All celebrated the festivals with colours
like a festival. Rakesh got many gifts.
•
Rakesh’s result was his father’s lifelong sacrifices.
•
Next happiness: Rakesh wrote a thesis for his MD and won a scholarship through his
thesis and got a chance for further study in the USA.
Contd-4

Fun in the story: Verma never called the country America. He only learned to say ‘ The
 

USA.’
Varam was so joyous about his son’s grades and his academic trip to America for his
 

medical education.
Some neighbour doubted that his achievement would make him proud and he may
 

forget his parents and motherland.

Rakesh passed the medical degree and he also got a good job in a hospital.
 

Rakish always gave his first priority to his family. He loved his family more than
 

anything else in the world.

Contd-5

He gained much experience and money and returned to his homeland with the hope to
 

work there.
Varma family did not feel good to find Rakesh at home. They got surprised at his
 

arrival.

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND

Contd-6

Rakesh decided to marry an uneducated village girl.

 

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

Contd-7

Veena, his wife was so pretty fat woman who was uneducated and old-fashioned. She
 

seemed too lazy but she was a placid and pleasant woman. She tried her best to please
others through her household tasks.
Rakesh started working in the city hospital after his marriage. He got the promotion and
 

became director.
The next happiness: The birth of his son.
 

He left the city hospital and started his own clinic.

 


Due to his hard work he became the richest doctor in the town.

Verma became old and he got retirement from his kerosene depot where he had
worked for forty years.
Contd.

Rakesh’s mother died. Rakesh was satisfied because he had given good
 

care and had made his mother feel proud before her death.
Rakesh tried his best to support his father by providing him with every
 

essential need.
Verma’s health became poor. He began to feel sick time and again.
 

Rakesh provided good medical treatment to his father.

 

Because of his poor health condition, Verma ji had to go through a diet

 

plan.
He was provided with boiled foodstuffs.
 
Contd.

The ban on his favorite food made Verma unhappy. Verma got irritated with
 

his son and daughter-in-law. He preferred to spend his remaining days

enjoying and eating the food he liked.
Rakesh got irritated with his father’s activities. His father used to give
 

bribes to his grandsons for jalebis. Rakesh blamed his father for making his
son a liar.
Verma became like a corpse by listening to Rakesh’s lectures.
 

The tension between son and father arouse.

 
Verma began complaining about their acts of banning different things to his
 

friend Bhatiya.
He blamed both his son and daughter-in-law as haters. Both served him
 

boiled food to eat and the rest delicious items to smell only.
For Verma Rakesh seemed a cruel and tyrannical son.
 

He begged his son to let him die. He did not want to live his life being
 

dependent only on medicine. Rakesh reached a critical state of choosing

options either to stay a devoted son or leave his father to die in his
condition.
Contd.

But Rakesh chose to care for his father being a devoted son. Rakesh did his
 

best to keep his father away from getting weak and ill.