A Devoted Son

Genre: Short story

Writer: Anita Desai, an Indian female novelist and short story writer

Theme: Parents’ cherishing of their ambition towards their children and a son’s duty towards his parents in Indian context

Characters:

1. Rakesh

2. Varma, Rakesh’s father

3. Rakesh’s mother

4. Veena, Rakesh’s wife

5. Bhatia, Varma’s next door neighbor

Summary and more

Rakesh, a studious young man and a national topper in studies, is a very devoted son too. He respects his father very much, and the first thing he always does is bow down to touch his father’s feet. His father Varma is very proud of him. Rakesh earns a scholarship and goes to the USA for medical studies and becomes a doctor. But instead of staying and doing job in the USA, he returns to his own country, India and starts living with and taking care of his parents. He also marries a girl chosen by his mother. Evidently, he is a devoted son.

Rakesh soon makes a great success as a doctor and runs a clinic of his own. He becomes the best and the richest doctor in the town. By this time, his father Varma grows old and ill, and his mother grows even weaker and dies soon after despite Rakesh’s special medical care. After the death of his mother, Rakesh takes extra care of his father’s illness and treats him with all his medical knowledge and devotion. But he also controls his father’s diet. He restricts him from eating any fried food or any sweet, except a little kheer. Varma is forced to eat only dry and boiled food – the kind of food he completely dislikes. And he is also forced to take the medicine everyday against his will. Poor Varma loses the joy of his life. The only pleasure he has now is when he gets to talk and share his sorrow with his neighbor Bhatia. Varma complains that he made his son Rakesh a great doctor, but now he gets such a cruel and unjust treatment in return. Varma cannot tolerate it anymore and one day he protests against his doctor son and pushes away the medicine being administered by him.

So, is Rakesh truly a devoted son? Readers know the right answer now. Rakesh, though seems to be a devoted son in every way, is not so in the true sense. He could only see his father’s illness, but couldn’t see the real cause of his pain. He considered his father’s health alone, but couldn’t consider his father’s happiness and understand his feelings. To sum up, he treated his father as his patient and not as his father.