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| Neb English Support Class 12 |
Section 2: Literature (Short Stories)
A Devoted Son by Anita Desai
MAIN INTRODUCTION
GLOSSARY OF THE TEXT
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 behaviour 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
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A Devoted Son by Anita Desai
Write about the author of "A Devoted Son".
Name: Anita Desai (Pen Name)
Real Name: Anita Mazumdar
Nationality: Indian
Birth: 24 June 1937 (age 84)
Birth Place: Mussoorie, India
Occupation: Writer / Professor
Notable Works: In Custody, Baumgartner's Bombay
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ABOUT THE STORY
“A Devoted Son” is a realistic story based on a middle-class Indian family. This story was written by a famous Indian writer, Anita Desai. This story is about a devoted Indian son who has tried his best to serve his family members.
The story initially appeared in Anita Desai's story collection, "Games at Twilight and Other Stories" This collection of stories was first published in 1978 by Vintage and has received widespread popularity. The story "A Devoted Son" in this collection has mainly presented contemporary urban Indian people and their lives.
This story has been narrated by a third-person narrator. This story is based on the life of a doctor named Dr. Rakesh. He is the main character of this story.
SETTING OF THE STORY
THEMES IN THE STORY
CHARACTERS IN THE STORY
Rakesh:
Rakesh is a well-behaved and very devoted son of Varma. He is a brilliant student who becomes a doctor and even gets an opportunity to continue his education and practice in the USA. His father, Varma, is a laborious worker at a kerosene depot. Rakesh takes overall care of his father during his old age. He supervises his father in every step, especially in the matter of taking foodstuffs, and even medicates him for every little complaint.
Veena:
Veena is a simple and very caring housewife. She is physically fat but beautiful. She is married to Rakesh. She is very loyal and dutiful by nature. She mostly follows her husband's orders regarding her father-in-law's diet.
Varma:
Varma is a laborious worker at a kerosene depot. He has worked there for more than forty years. He works quite hard and educates his son, Rakesh. He takes pride in his son's achievements. But later, in his old age, he finds his son a tyrant as his son cuts his foodstuffs.
Bhatia:
Bhatia is an old neighbour of the Varma family. He is a friend of Varma who participates in Rakesh's family interactions and activities. He lives next door and often goes to sit outside with Varma and complain about the difficulties faced by both of them.
Varma's wife:
Varma's wife is an unnamed lady in the story. She is a fine housewife as well as a caring mother. But she dies later, which leads to the unhappiness of Varma and makes him sick.
Rakesh's Children:
Rakesh's children are unnamed here in this story. They mostly pass their time and play with their grandfather. Varma also enjoys their company. He takes the help of his grandson to bring foodstuffs for him stealthily.
MORALS OF THE STORY
▪︎ Relationships should be handled quite carefully.
▪︎ Children should fulfil the dreams of their parents, as parents sacrifice their lives for the bright future of their children.
▪︎ Parents should be treated well, as they sacrifice their whole lives working hard to meet the needs of their children.
▪︎ There should always be a fine relationship between children and parents, especially in matters of love, affection, respect, care etc.
DETAILED SUMMARY
Rakesh came from a poor family background. His grandparents used to work as vegetable vendors. His father had spent his forty years in a kerosene depot working so hard. His father had years of dream of having an educated son.
The story starts with the morning newspaper in Rakesh's hand. The morning newspaper brought an atmosphere of celebration to the Varma family, which contained the news of Rakesh's top pass marks in the country. At first, Rakesh touched his father's feet and informed his father about his achievement.
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The result of Rakesh made all the members happy. They whooped and danced. When the people from the community learned about Rakesh's achievement, they arrived at Rakesh's small yellow house at the end of the road to congratulate Varma's family members. They celebrated the occasion as a festival with sound and colours. Rakesh was very well treated by the people with gifts. The result of Rakesh brought a kind of happiness to all. People were served halwa. Rakesh’s success was a special matter of discussion in the neighbourhood. The top grade in the whole country was a matter of pride not only for Varma's family members but for all the people of the community. Rakesh was the only one who first got education in Varma's family. People felt so good to see a son like Rakesh who was full of good behaviour. They had never seen such qualities in others' sons in their surroundings. Tears rolled down from women's eyes when they heard the act of Rakesh in the morning by his father.
The result of Rakesh was the fruit of Rakesh's father's lifelong sacrifices. Varma had never stepped inside the school, but he made his son educated by doing his hard labour in his entire lifetime.
Later on, Rakesh wrote a thesis for his MD, which brought happiness to all. He won a scholarship for his thesis and got a chance for further study in the USA. Varma never called the country's name America; he only learned to say 'The USA'. He even prohibited his family members from saying the word 'America'. According to him, ignorant neighbours only say America. He asked all his family members to say 'The USA'.
Varma informed about his son's achievement to everyone. He was so joyous about his son's grades and his academic trip to America for his medical education. Most of the neighbours congratulated Varma and wished his son good luck in his further studies. Some of the neighbours were even worried about him. They supposed that the achievement would make Rakesh feel proud and forget his motherland. But Varma didn't care about all that because he was so happy to know about the popularity of his son.
After passing his medical degree, Rakesh spent most of his time in America. He completed his medical degree quite easily and even got a reputed job in an American hospital. He used to send his awards to his home all the time. He kept on getting admired all the time through his awards. In this way, he was in touch with his family and his people.
Rakesh liked America so much. He was even admired for his aptitude by his colleagues. But for Rakesh, his family was his priority. He loved his family more than anything else in the world. He always hoped to return to his homeland. He had a strong plan to come back to his homeland one day. After gaining much experience and money, he returned to his homeland, hoping to work there.
But Rakesh decided to marry a girl from his village. He married the daughter of an old villager who was their family friend. His wife was such a pretty, fat woman. She was uneducated and old-fashioned. She seemed too lazy, but she was a quite placid and pleasant woman. She tried her best to please others through her household tasks.
After marriage, Rakesh started working in the city hospital. The city hospital was quite different from that of those hospitals where he used to work earlier. He decided to work in the same hospital and tried his best to bring changes. Sooner, he got a promotion and got the position of director in that hospital. His promotion brought happiness to his family. The next happiness for him was the birth of his son. He became quite happy and thought of his life as a complete one.
He worked in the city hospital for some years. But later on, he left the city hospital and started his clinic. He kept on serving his patients, being dutiful. He became able to get a name and fame through his clinic. He became the richest doctor in town. His father grew old and got retirement from his kerosene dealer's depot, where he had worked for forty years. During all those events, Rakesh never felt boastful and ungrateful towards his family. He always had a sense of respect for his family members. He never forgot this sense from his life.
After that, he passed through the tragic incident. His mother died. Both Varma and Rakesh became so sad. Rakesh was content because at least he was able to make her mother proud before her death. But his tension increased for his father. He didn't have much time to take care of his father due to his own family life and job. He tried his best to support his father by providing him with every essential need. After the death of his wife, Varma's health started reacting mysteriously. He fell ill frequently. Rakesh even didn't know the actual cause of his father's frequent illness. His father was quite good while his wife was alive. He seemed so happy and satisfied in his mentality. But after his wife's death, he found himself alone and suffered from depression. He started doing unusual activities. He felt broken into pieces. At the birthday party of Rakesh's youngest son, when everyone became fearful about Varma's death, Rakesh postponed the birthday party only to recover his father's health completely fine. He provided his father with good medical treatment.
Rakesh kept on doing his task of caring for his father, being a devoted son. He didn't give up caring for his father. As a good son, he used to provide his father morning tea in a brass tumbler. He used to read the morning newspaper for his father. He always suggested his father to come out of his room and take fresh air in the garden outside.
The old man seemed satisfied with other things except for one, which was his diet plan. Once Varma ordered sojjie-halwa to his daughter-in-law Veena and ate. He became quite ill. After that, Rakesh prohibited halwa, oily and unhealthy food items for his father. The food items that the old man enjoyed a lot were gradually decreased. Due to the old man's health, he was provided much with boiled foodstuffs.
Varma became restless in the lack of his best foodstuffs. Varma got irritated with his son. He wanted to spend his remaining days enjoying and eating the things he liked.
But Varma used to eat sweet items with the help of his grandson. He used to give bribes to his grandchild for jalebis. Rakesh got irritated to find his father's activities. He became worried about his son, thinking that his father would make his son less honourable than him. He blamed his father for making his son a liar. For him, his father was spoiling his stomach as well as his grandson. Varma remained like a corpse after hearing his son's lectures.
But Rakesh chose to care for his father. He wasn't able to make his father completely fine, but he kept on looking and caring for him, being a devoted son. Rakesh tried his best to keep his father under control. As a doctor, he was aware of various diseases that were increasing in the town with high speed. He knew very well about old people's health risks. He wanted to keep his father away from getting weak and ill. He didn't leave his devotion towards his father till the end. The devotion of Varma in the past for his son Rakesh in making him a doctor was seen within Rakesh too. Though he banned his father's foodstuffs, he only thought about his father's health. He remained the same for his father thereafter.
Here, the main message of the writer to all of us is that we all face similar situations in our family life and also have similar kinds of alternatives. In these situations or choices, we shouldn't forget to respect and care for our elders. We should try our best to devote our service towards them, as they cared for us once.
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