A Devoted Son

Rakesh is loyal and loving to his family, and through his actions and beliefs, he shows how deeply devoted he is to his culture and traditions. However, even though others value his devotion, he does not always receive it in return.

After Rakesh earns the top spot in the country’s academic ranking, his family throws a party in his honor—or at least it appears to be in his honor. It doesn’t take long for the reader to realize that his father wants to take the glory and often does.

Varma is happy to bathe in the praise that comes from raising a dedicated son, and at first, others are happy to give it to him. But soon people realize that Varma didn’t do anything to earn the attention. This is hinted at during the party near the beginning of the story when the neighbors comment, “Don’t you think old Varma was giving himself airs? He needn’t think we don’t remember that he comes from the vegetable market himself, his father used to sell vegetables, and he has never seen the inside of a school” (Paragraph 5). Varma is not the one who put in the work to earn good grades.

Varma did what he could to ensure that his children’s lives are better than what he had. The narrator says, “Rakesh was the first son in the family to receive an education, so much had been sacrificed in order to send him to school and then medical college, and at last the fruits of their sacrifice had arrived, golden and glorious” (Paragraph 4). However, it’s not made clear what had been sacrificed. Perhaps the narrator is alluding to the turbulent decade that occurred before the publication of the story when Varma and others were oppressed by the Indian government.

The only indication that Varma may have changed anything in his life is given later in the story when the reader learns he no longer works in the vegetable market (as implied at the beginning of the story) but has retired from working as a kerosene dealer. Perhaps he changed jobs to help his family. Yet, while Varma is more than willing to say he’s done a lot to help his son, his actions don’t seem to back up his words.

There is a sense that Varma wasn’t as devoted to his father as Rakesh is to him. His father is never mentioned outside of being a vegetable vendor. Neither he nor Varma received a formal education. However, if Varma was lucky enough to have such a devoted son in Rakesh, it wasn’t because he led by example.

To further show that Rakesh’s devotion is an anomaly, there are indicators that Rakesh’s son doesn’t have the same devotion to him as Rakesh has to Varma, even though Rakesh has led by example. As Varma grows older, he becomes ill, and Rakesh restricts his diet. Some of the first items he’s forbidden to eat include sweets, and this is devastating for him. He goes so far as to convince his grandson to sneak out of the house to buy the forbidden food:

He tried to bribe his grandchildren into buying him sweets (and how he missed his wife now, that generous, indulgent and illiterate cook), whispering, ‘Here’s fifty paise,’ as he stuffed the coins into a tight, hot fist. ‘Run down to the shop at the crossroads and buy me thirty paise worth of jalebis, and you can spend the remaining twenty paise on yourself. Eh? Understand? Will you do that?’ (Paragraph 17).

Rakesh finds out what he’s doing and becomes upset. He points out that Varma is turning his grandson into a liar, saying, “You should have heard the lies he told his mother when she saw him bringing back those jalebis wrapped up in filthy newspaper” (Paragraph 17). There are no indications that Rakesh would have lied to his father. So, once again, his devotion is unique.

The story goes a step further and shows how Varma is less than devoted—unless it benefits him. The only time Varma’s religion is mentioned is at the end when he asks God to let him die:

He gave one push to the pillows at his back and dislodged them so he could sink down on his back, quite flat again. He closed his eyes and pointed his chin at the ceiling, like some dire prophet, groaning, ‘God is calling me—now let me go’ (Paragraph 51).

Varma has grown tired of his son’s attempts to keep him alive and do what’s best for his health. He no longer wants his son’s devotion because it’s not on terms that Varma finds acceptable.

It would seem reasonable for Rakesh to end his devotion to his father. Everyone else has given up on him, and Varma does not make things easy. However, true to his character, Rakesh does what he can to let his father know he is there for him, even when Varma becomes petulant and unruly. Rakesh’s devotion means recognizing that his father is imperfect yet choosing to remain loyal and loving despite his faults.

Rakesh’s devotion says more about his character and desire to help others than it does about his father, who is perhaps unworthy of such a loyal son. Yet, Rakesh’s devotion isn’t about the person or object he dedicated his loyalty to. Despite the hardships and troubles his father causes, he feels it’s his duty to remain faithful and take care of him. He has this same belief when it comes to his wife and family.

Rakesh’s devotion goes beyond individuals to his culture. This is especially significant considering the time the story was written when India was seeing upheaval and strife. There was a sense of progress in the 1960s and 1970s, but there was also a desire to return to traditional values. Rakesh embodies the ability to both move forward and maintain cultural values. Varma represents the part of the culture that is stuck in the past and unable to move forward. It’s not surprising that, with different ideals, there are clashes between the generations.

Rakesh is afforded many opportunities to make a good life for himself. The life he has with his family isn’t what anyone would classify as ideal. The narrator says of Rakesh’s home,

He came back, he actually returned to that small yellow house in the once-new but increasingly shabby colony, right at the end of the road where the rubbish vans 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 (Paragraph 6).

The reader has already been made aware that Varma doesn’t have a high-paying job, and while they attempt to make their home and neighborhood look good, they are close to a dump—trash touches their fences.

Rakesh could leave this behind. He goes to America to be trained as a doctor and is recognized for his accomplishments while he’s there. He doesn’t have to come home, and yet he does—because he’s devoted to his family and, even more, to his culture and to making life better for his fellow Indians.

Once he returns home, he could move into a different neighborhood, but he chooses not to. The narrator says that Rakesh “became known not only as the best but also the richest doctor in town” (Paragraph 8). No doubt there are nicer neighborhoods in his city that don’t border a dump, and yet Rakesh remains where he is because he knows he can make a bigger impact working with the people who need him most.

If Varma represents the older generation and their desire not to change, then his illness symbolizes how India has become sick with the inability to move forward and embrace progress. Like Varma, the country takes credit when people succeed, but it doesn’t find a way to move forward. Like Varma, the country becomes disillusioned and feels like it’s being ignored. It wants to be the center of attention, but the country, like Varma, is left to wither and fade alone in a bedroom.

When the other members of the family ignore Varma, it symbolizes how most of the people in the country turned away from “tradition” and the old ways of thinking. Veena, Rakesh’s wife, embodies the opinion of people in the country who only look forward, and it upsets Varma. The narrator says, “But Rakesh had turned his back to him and was cleaning up the litter of bottles and packets on the medicine shelf and did not notice while Veena slipped silently out of the room with a little smirk that only the old man saw, and hated” (Paragraph 15).

Veena’s refusal to cook the foods that Varma craves and her happiness in defying him shows that she’s not afraid to disregard Varma’s and India’s traditions in the pursuit of progress. This passage also shows that Rakesh is able and willing to turn his back on his father’s less-than-desirable behavior. Yet he still finds a way to make life better for him and for India.

Rakesh balances tradition with progress. His devotion to his family and his country is notable when he could have easily turned his back on both and followed his dreams somewhere far away. The fact that he continues to engage in traditional behaviors, such as touching an elder’s feet, shows his dedication and loyalty to tradition. At the same time, he is educated in modern medicine and uses what he learns to make life better for those around him.

Rakesh’s ability to balance these traits is essential when it comes to embracing change, particularly in a country that was as turbulent as India was at this time. His devotion is an anomaly, but one that makes it possible for him to find success and make life easier for those around him, even if some of them (particularly his father) don’t appreciate it.