About the Author
Anita Desai (1937)
In Mussoorie, India, Desai was born to a German immigrant mother, Toni Nime, and a Bengali businessman, D. N. Mazumdar.
She is a novelist, short story writer and writer of children’s books.
She received the Sahitya Academy Award for her novel Fire on the Mountain in 1978 from India’s National Academy of Letters.
Background of the story
“A Devoted Son” is a realistic story set in a middle-class Indian family in an Indian village.
The story portrays how parents invest their lives for the children’s success and how a son should pay back to the parents by fulfilling his duty.
Characters:
Rakesh: He is the central character of the story. He stands first in the country in his medical exam. He even gets an opportunity to study M.D. in the USA and progresses enough to settle there. However, he returns to his hometown, India, to serve his parents.
Mr Verma: He is the father of Rakesh. He has worked as a kerosine vendor for forty years to educate his son. As he grows older, he starts hating his son because he does not allow him to eat foods that hamper his health.
Mrs Verma: Rakesh’s Mother
Veena: She is a beautiful plump illiterate girl who is the daughter of Mrs Verma’s childhood friend.
Plot
Rakesh stands first in the finals of his medical exam, which brings a whirl of joy to his house. Everybody admires him for his success and his respect for his parents. The thesis that he has written for his Doctorate in Medicine (M.D.) even brings him greater glory. By this, he wins a scholarship to study in the USA. When he receives the chance to explore further in the U.S., he departs. Mr. Varma is quite pleased with his kid since he performs well there. Although some locals believe he may get married to a foreign girl, he marries a plump, uneducated girl -Veena, daughter of a childhood friend of his mother, as per her suggestion.
Rakesh has been rising in the height of fame and fortune in America, but he does not stay there long because he wants to stay with his parents and serve them. For some years, Rakesh works in the city hospital and soon becomes the director. However, he leaves this job and opens his own clinic. Soon, he becomes the best and richest doctor in the town. All this success has not arrived at him in the wink of an eye. His father’s contribution is more significant than his own effort behind his accomplishment, who has worked for forty years at the kerosene dealer’s depot.
Everything seems fine until his mother passes away, which leaves his father physically and mentally weak and sick. Time and again, he pretends to be dead, which irritates his family. He even ruins his grandchild’s birthday through this kind of pretension. He suffers from multiple diseases, and his life sustains on medicine. He gets weaker day by day. Rakesh bans him from eating fried and sweet items. Mr Verma complains to his old friend and neighbor Mr Bhatia of his son.
He regards his son as the worst son because he does not allow him to eat anything except boiled foods. He even tries to bribe his grandson to buy him jalebies which Rakesh finds out and bursts his anger on his father. Mr Verma takes all of these treatments of his son as disrespect, strictness, and mal-treatment. Rakesh cannot save his father from death but does his best to save him and proves himself as a truly devoted son.
Conclusion:
In life, we should keep parents as the first priority because they are the ones who have abandoned their ambitions for their children’s sake. We shouldn’t forget to look after our elders the way they once looked after us. Because of old age, the parents might behave like children, but the son/daughter should always be there to take care of. In this story, 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 delivered to him when he has wanted to be a doctor. He does his best to save his father from diseases and death.
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