A Devoted Son by Anita Desai , class 12 com English Summary

 

A devoted son

Anita Desai

Anita Desai, original name Anita Mazumdar, (b. 1937- ) is an Indian novelist, short story writer and the writer of children’s books. As a biracial child born to a German mother and Indian father, Desai was exposed to German, Hindi and English language from her childhood. After completing her B. A. from University of Delhi, Desai began to publish her stories and novels. She has many short stories and popular novels. She received Shahitya Academy Award for her novel Fire on the Mountain. Her novel In Custody was adapted into a film in 1993. ‘The Devoted Son’ is extracted from her collection of stories, The Complete Short Stories.

‘A Devoted Son’ 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 fulfill his duty towards the parents.   

Summary

This story is based on the middle class family of Varmaji in India. Rakesh is a devoted son of Varmaji who has got top score in medical sector. His name is published at the top of magazine. He directly goes to his father and touches his feet to get congratulation and blessing. This news spreads into his village and everybody comes to congratulate him. His father gets happy and his relatives come to thank Rakesh and his father to express their best wishes on his success. They said, "Mubarak Varmaji" your son has brought you glory.  Varmaji is proud of his devoted son because at first he come to his father and touched his feet. They bring different types of flowers, gifts and sweets. The house and garden is filled with the sound, and colors of the festival. There are garlands and halwa party and fills with clothes or gifts for Rakesh. There is not any child in this shabby little colony who shines as Rakesh.

Rakesh writes a thesis for his M.D. which helps him to take scholarship in U.S.A. medical college. Mr. Varmaji teaches his family to tell U.S.A. instead of 'America'. He believes that USA is more prestigious than 'America'. Rakesh starts his study in most prestigious college in America and starts to earn small amount. After the completion of his course he returns in his small yellow house. The place where his parents are living is not town, it is a shabby colony. At the end of the road the rubbish van tipped out their stinking contents for pigs to nose in and rag-pickers to build their shacks on, all steaming and smoking just outside the neat wire fences and well-tended gardens. Rakesh do the first thing in house to escape from the embrace of his sisters and brothers and bows down and touches his father's feet. His father works in a Kerosene dealer's depot.

Rakesh didn't married in America which his mother has feared that he might marry in America as other Indian boys do. Instead he gets ready to marry a girl from his village which his mother wishes. She is not so much attractive, plumy and uneducated girl. As she enter the house she gets able to manage all the household activities as other girls do although she is old fashioned, seemingly too lazy and placid(calm). She gave birth to a child.

Rakesh starts to work in city hospital, quickly rises to the top of administrative organization and becomes diractor of the hospital. Then, he starts his own clinic. Once he takes his parents to show new clinic in his magnificent sky-blue Ambassador car. His name and fame is increased and starts to earn much. He is known as a best and richest doctor in the town. His father has retired from his post at the kerosene dealer's depot at which he has worked for forty years. His mother was so lucky who gets a son to have a treatment, Rakesh presses his mother's feet at last movement but gets unsuccessful to save her life.

Rakesh is not only a devouted son but also a obedient son to his parent, joyful partner for his wife and friendly and sociable person to his friends. He is a man of calm nature and   good virtue, fine doctor and trained surgeon.

Because of retired life and death of his wife, Rakesh's father gets ill. Rakesh tries his best but can't find its treatment which is a kind of new disease. There is a big birthday party of the youngest son.  The celebration is suddenly hushed (stopped) when daughter in law found that the old man is in serious condition. His legs are stretched on his string bed and he has no pulse in his hand. She finds a gob of red spittle on the hem of her sari she becomes angry and leaves to care him. But his son Rakesh takes care of his father.

Rakesh provides morning tea to his father in his favourite tea brass tumbler where all family prefers to drink in china cup. He seats at the edge of his bed and reads newspaper for his father. He requests his father to come out of the room and take fresh air but father doesn't like to do this things.  On summer nights he manages him to take rest onto the lawn under the star for a whole night.

Rakesh is very serious to the diet of his father. He is gratifying his father but there is a conflict in selection of food. One day when the father is really sick and orders his daughter-in-law to prepare Soojie halwa. He eats this dish with a saucerful of cream. At the same time his son arrives. He becomes angry to his father and as a doctor he warns his father not to eat such things which doesn't suit him. he offer him to eat only little rice and milk. Sick father the sound and words of his son which are not very soft for him. He opens his eyes and looks at his son with disbelief that darkened quickly to reproach. His father says that these foods don't harm him. But Rakesh turns his back to his father and work in the shelf where medicines are kept.

The old man prefers to have roasted and fried food, sweets and Halawa but now his son is providing him dry bread, boiled lentils boiled vegetable and chicken and fish which are also boiled. The old man said his son that oily food doesn't harm him which his wife used to give him. if he ask for other food his son comes to the door and gaze at him sadly and says, " No papa we must be careful to your health, and we can't risk another illness".

Once, Varma calls his grandson and gives him fifty Paisa to buy some sweets for him. Mr. Varma says to him to go to the shop and buy fifty Paisa for jalebis (Sweets) and rest spend on his wish.  When Rakesh knows all these things, he shouted at his father and said, “Now papa, are you trying to turn my little son into a liar?” He also said to Varma, "The sweets of the bazaar were unhygienic. It causes cholera, typhoid, and gastroenteritis. I daily see these types of cases in my clinic. I don’t want to see my family on such risks?”

Old Bhatai is a neighbour who lives next to his door Varma. He watches that old Bhatai bathes in the tiled bathroom indoors and insists on carrying out his brass mug and towel in all seasons. Bhatai gets all those things that Varma expects, but he doesn’t get them from his son. One day, Varma and Bhatai are talking about their illness to each other. On the conservation, Bhatai tells Varma that he has at least a doctor (child) who takes care of his health. Varma cries after listening to it, he expresses his all pain in front of Bhatai. He says that his son not even gives him enough food to eat. His son weighs the foods, not more than two hundred grams of cereal a day. When he asks for fried, spicy, and oily food, he shouts at him with a cracked voice and never allowed to eat them. He has brought him up, given him an education which made him a great doctor but this is the way he treats him.

Rakesh didn’t give too much food to his father, only a miserable diet on which Varma found himself slipping, weakening, and soon becoming a genuinely sick man. Rakesh provides him different types of pills- pills to regulate his bowel movements, pills to bring down his blood pressure, pills to deal with his arthritis, and, eventually, pills to keep his heart beating. Pills and medicine has become a part of his diet. From time to time, Rakesh brings his father for a stomach pump and enema, which makes him frightened and helpless. Varma hated all these things but when Varma complains to it, Rakesh would simply open another bottle of pills and force him to take one.

Varma did not like to eat only medicines. He wants to die. He cries in genuine pain. The quantities of vitamins and tonics gave him a kind of strength to live like a dead man only. It is as though straining (cause to be tense) at a rope, trying to break it, and it would not break, it was still strong.

One day when Rakesh went to his father after coming from the clinic. He gave Varma a new tonic to make him feel better. But Varma denied to accept this tonic with his hand and the bottle falls on to ground, breaks into pieces and stains on the white trouser of Rakesh. Rakesh doesn't speak any word to his father. But Varma wish to die. He didn’t want to take more medicine. He stretches his body sink down in his back, closes his eyes and looks at ceiling and groans, " God is calling me _ now let me go". The old man dies.

Glossary

wunderkind (n.) : a person who achieves great success when relatively young

sweetmeat (n.): a small piece of sweet food, made of or covered in sugar

encomiums (n.): a piece of writing that praises someone or something highly

desolate (adj.): feeling or showing great unhappiness or loneliness

delicacy (n.): fine food item

frugal (adj.): simple and plain and costing little

gastroenteritis (n.): a disease triggered by the infection and inflammation of the digestive system

supplant (v.): replace

hypocritical (adj.): characterized by behavior that contradicts what one claims to believe or feel

Ambassador (n.): an automobile manufactured by Hindustan Motors of India, in production from 1958

hubbub (n.): a loud confusing noise

prophet (n.): a person regarded as an inspired teacher