A Devoted Son

: Anita Desai

Characters

Rakesh

Varma, his father

His mother

Veena, his wife

Bhatiya, Varma´s friend

About the author

“A Devoted Son” is a short story by Indian female writer, Anita Desai. The story appears in the collection, Games at Twilight and Other Stories. Desai’s collection of stories was published in 1978 by Vintage and received widespread popular praise. The stories, including “A Devoted Son,” reflect contemporary urban life in India and the characters are from all walks of life. Desai has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times and she served as the Emerita John E. Buchard Professor of Humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her daughter, Kiran Desai, is a Booker Prize winner.

This is a realistic story set in a middle-class Indian family in an Indian village. The story shows how parents cherish their ambition towards their children and how a son should fulfil his duty towards the parents.

Summary
“A Devoted Son” moves around the main character, Rakesh. He comes from a poor Indian family of a village. His father, Varma, works as a vegetable vendor, and spent many years dreaming of having an educated son. Rakesh is the first in the family to get education. When Rakesh finishes his medical examinations with top / highest marks in the country, this becomes the cause for celebration.

Varma tells everyone about Rakesh’s grades and his going to medical college in America. Neighbours come to pay their respects and wish them well, but some townsfolk worry this will make Rakesh conceited and forget where he comes from. Varma isn’t worried about this, however, he’s proud to have a son like him.

Rakesh spends a lot of time in America finishing his degree. He completes it with ease and has job offers at prestigious US hospitals. He wins awards that are sent back to his family for them to keep and admire. It’s Rakesh’s way of keeping in touch with them until he can return home.

Although Rakesh loves America and is admired by his colleagues for his aptitude, he loves his family more. He always planned on returning home. As soon as he has enough experience and money behind him, he returns home with the intention of working in his hometown.

His parents, however, aren’t so happy with his life choices. They don’t understand why he wants to come home and leave all this behind. They also don’t understand why he chooses to marry a village girl with no education. Varma believes he should have bigger dreams. This is the first real sign of conflict within the family unit. Rakesh refuses to listen to his parents, and he marries the girl.

He then starts working at the city hospital, which is quite different from the hospitals he’s used to working in. Rakesh, however, wants to work here and make a difference in his town. He quickly rises to the position of director, to the awe and joy of his entire family. Through all of this, Rakesh never seems conceited or ungrateful. There’s always a sense that he remembers who he is, and that he won’t let this go. When he has a son of his own, his life is complete.

Sadly, it’s not long before this that his mother passes away. Varma takes it especially hard. Rakesh is pleased he at least made her proud before she died, but he worries for his father and how he’ll cope. Now that Rakesh has a family of his own, he doesn’t have as much time to dedicate to Varma, but he does what he can as his father’s health declines. He doesn’t want to lose any time he has left with him, and he puts his medical skills to good use.

Rakesh imposes a ban on sweets for Varma, to look after his stomach. However, Varma tries to get them through Rakesh’s son, which enrages Rakesh. He worries that his father will make his grandson less honourable than Rakesh. Tensions rise between father and son, and Rakesh starts resenting how much time he spends looking after him—although he keeps doing it. For example, when everyone fears Varma is near death, they postpone a birthday party, only for Varma to be entirely fine. Rakesh wonders if he’s doing it deliberately for attention.

However, Rakesh doesn’t give up on his father. Instead, he becomes more devoted to him. He wants his son to have a good relationship with Varma, just as he did as a boy. Varma tells Rakesh and his wife that he doesn’t like them, but even then, Rakesh looks out for him. As relationships deteriorate, Rakesh must choose whether to stay devoted to his father or leave him to die on his own.
Rakesh chooses to help his father. Desai’s message here is that we’re all faced with similar choices eventually, and we shouldn’t forget to look after our elders the way they once looked after us. Although Rakesh can’t make his father better, and he’s struggling to keep his own life under control, he doesn’t abandon him. He shows Varma the same faith once shown to him when he wanted to become a doctor. When Rakesh must finally let Varma go, right at the end, he knows he did all he could for him.


Understanding the text

Answer the following questions.

a. How did the morning papers bring an ambience of celebration to the Varma family?

Ans: The result of Varma’s son was published in the morning papers. Rakesh had scored the highest rank in the country for his Medical Examination and brought ambience of celebration in the Varma family as it was a matter of pride for the family.

b. How did the community celebrate Rakesh’s success?

Ans: The community people celebrated Rakesh’s success by coming to his small yellow house, congratulating the parents, slapping Rakesh on the back, filling his house and garden with the sounds and colours of festivals and offering gifts like fountain pens and watches.

c. Why was Rakesh’s success a special matter of discussion in the neighbourhood?

Ans: Rakesh’s success was a special matter of discussion in the neighbourhood because he was the first son in the family to receive education, and he topped in the medical examination in the country.

d. How does the author make fun with the words ‘America’ and ‘the USA’?

Ans: The author makes fun with the words “America” and “The USA” by associating them with Verma’s nature of dealing with the words as he thought “the USA” as more prestigious and modern than “America”. For him America is the term to be used by ignorant neighbours whereas the term “the USA” is preferred by educated people.

e. How does the author characterize Rakesh’s wife?

Ans: The author characterizes Rakesh’s wife as an old fashioned, plump and uneducated girl. She was the daughter of his mother’s childhood friend. She was so placid, complaisant[SR1]  and lazy but too good-natured and pretty fat one.

f. Describe how Rakesh rises in his career.

Ans: Rakesh was the first child to get education in the family. He topped in the medical examination in the country. He got a scholarship when he wrote a thesis on M.D. He went to the USA and completed further course. He then came to his own country and started his career as a doctor in the city hospital and quickly reached the top of administrative: organization and was made a director. After being a successful doctor, he opened his own private clinic to serve the people.

g. How does the author describe Rakesh’s family background?

Ans: The author describes Rakesh’s family background as the family of poor middle class. He was the son of uneducated parents. His father worked for a kerosene dealer’s depot and his mother spent her life in a kitchen and his grandparents worked as vegetable sellers in the market.

h. What is the impact of Rakesh’s mother’s death on his father?

Ans: The impact of Rakesh’s mother’s death on his father was that his father was stricken with grief. His old father very quickly went to pieces and fell ill so frequently with such mysterious disease named a peevish whim (sudden irritation in mind) that even his son could no longer make it out.

i. What did Rakesh do to make his father’s old age more comfortable?

Ans: Rakesh brought his father his morning tea in the old man’s favourite brass tumbler, and sat at the edge of his bed, comfortable and relaxed his father’s night-shirt, and read out the morning news to him to make even more comfortable in his old age.

j. Why did the old man try to bribe his grandchildren?

Ans: The old man tried to bribe his grandchildren in order to get a chance to eat Jalebis and food of his choice as his son didn’t allow him to eat oily fried food and sweets.

k. Are Mr Varma’s complaints about his diets reasonable? How?

Ans: Mr Verma’s complaints about his diets are reasonable to some extent from the old father’s point of view. But for Rakesh as a devoted son and by his profession, he is also reasonable in his performances and activities because he does such activities for the better healthy life of his sick father.

 

 Reference to the Context 

a. How did the Varma couple make sacrifices for their son’s higher education?

Ans: The Verma couple was from a poor background and they were uneducated. His father worked for a kerosene dealer, his mother in the kitchen and his grandparents worked as vegetable vendors. His parents worked hard and sacrificed their life, time, money and everything for their son’s higher education and medical course even in the USA. They did very much for his career.


b. Mr Varma suffers from diseases one after another after his wife’s death. Would he have enjoyed better health if she had not died before him? Give reasons.

➜ Mr Varma suffered from diseases one after another his wife’s death. I think all this happen to him due to his wife’s death as it makes him alone and scattered. He thinks most of the time about his life partner which leads him stricken with grief. The old father very quickly went to pieces and fell ill. Thus, if she had not died before him, he would have enjoyed better health for few more days.

 

c. Dr Rakesh is divided between a doctor and a son. As a son, he loves his father and worries about his weakening health but as a doctor, he is strict on his father’s diet and medicine. In your view, what else could Rakesh have done to make his father’s final years more comfortable?

➜ Dr Rakesh is divided between a doctor and a son. As a son, he loves his father and worries about his weakening health but as a doctor, he is strict on his father’s diet and medicine. In my view, Rakesh could have done the following things to make his father’s final years more comfortable:

Rakesh would have been more polite and respectful in his behaviour with his father in the final years.

He wouldn’t have been so strict and miserable while regulating his father’s diet and food.

His loud-speaking towards his father- “No butter?”, “No oil’, “No more bread?” makes the old man very troublesome and miserable.


d. What does the story say about the relationship between grandfather and grandchildren?

➜ Desai’s story “A Devoted Son” shows loving companionship between grandfather and grandchildren. They have good bonding. But in the story, grandfather is attracted towards his grandchildren to get some sweets like ‘Jalebis’ from them by using the trick as his oily fried food, and sweets were prohibited by his son, Rakesh. Anyway, we find innocent, tricky, trusty and bonding relationships between grandfather and his grandchildren in the story.


e. Do you call Rakesh a devoted son? Give reasons.

➜ Yes, I call Rakesh a devoted son because I have the following reasons to prove him a devoted son. He shows a great degree of tender regard for his mother. He touches his father’s on every good occasion. Even though he studies in America, Rakesh does not bring back a foreign bride to his parents’ home. He marries an uneducated, old-fashioned village girl of his mother’s choosing. Though he treats his father as a medical professional, he does this for the better health and life of his father. Thus, he is a perfect son, a loving father and husband, and a good physician.