A Devoted Son Summary
When Rakesh, the son of Varma reads in the morning newspaper that he has topped the medical examinations securing the highest marks in the country, he passes this news to his parents touching their feet.The achievement is highly remarkable for Rakesh’s family since their family comes from a very poor background.
The news brings joy and celebration to the family. The whole community feels proud of Rakesh comes there to congratulate them and the celebration extends for the whole day, even if some neighbours complain about some services of celebration and worry that the Varma family may forget their background.
Rakesh even gets a scholarship in the USA to pursue his degree in MD. Rakesh returns to his village after completing his degree. Rakesh marries a simple girl chosen by his parents from his own village. Rakesh works in a city hospital and eventually rises to the top of the administrative organization.
Later, Rakesh sets his own clinic and even buys a new car. He earns the title of the best and richest doctor in the town.
Rakesh’s mother gets ill and despite Rakesh’s great care, she passes on his lap. The death of Rakesh’s mother breaks the Varma to pieces as he encounters the state of loneliness and great despair to Rakesh’s father, Varma. He develops a lot of complaints and feels ill frequently and even with mysterious diseases. Earlier, the family members are very worried and conscious of Varma’s health, but gradually they get used to it.
However, Rakesh allocates some time for his father despite his hectic life. As the health of Varma declines, Rakesh puts restrictions on the food that his father eats. The fried, spicy and tasty foods are gone and are replaced by the boiled and plain foods.
Varma doesn’t like the food provided to him and he even bribes his grandchildren to bring the jalebis providing them with some money. But, Rakesh and his wife eventually come to know about this and they get angry with him. Varma now feels lonely and hopeless. However, he enjoys the company of his son and some of his elderly neighbours, often of Old Bhatia. Varma makes complain of his son and daughter-in-law providing him limited and tasteless food with Old Bhatia.
Varma, with a continuous increment of pills and deprived of foods as per his taste, gets weak day by day. The weakness is further fuelled by family behaviours. The various discomforts increase in his body and the dose of pills also increases with the increase in comfort. He even begs to die than living such a miserable life. In spite of having a hectic life, Rakesh doesn’t abandon his father and provides some time to his father every day.
One day, Rakesh brings his father a new tonic and assures him that this tonic would make him soon completely well. Varma in agony sweeps the tonic and the tonic dislodges down the ground from the hands of Rakesh. The tonic gets smashed and broken on the ground and the thick brown syrup gets splashed. At the end of the story, lies flat turning his head to the ceiling and closes his eyes and makes a groan in a prophetic voice, “The God is calling me – now let me go.”
Understanding the Text
Answer the following questions.
a.How did the morning papers bring an ambience of celebration in the Varma family?
Ans.: Rakesh, the son of Varma passes the medical examinations with top marks – the highest marks in the country. And, the only source of this news for the Varma family is the morning newspaper. When Rakesh’s family members get this news with the help of the morning paper, they whoop and dance. Thus, the morning papers bring an ambience of celebration in the Varma house.
b.How did the community celebrate Rakesh’s success?
Ans.: When the community heard the news of Rakesh achieving the highest marks in medical examinations in the whole country, they too became part of the celebration of the Rakesh family.
For the whole day, the community people streamed into Varma’s family to congratulate the Varma couples and pat Rakesh on the back with the gesture of congratulation. In addition to this, they also brought garlands and halwa, party clothes and gifts (enough fountain pens to last years, even a watch or two). They happily enjoyed the betel leaves and sweetmeats provided to them.
c.Why was Rakesh’s success a special matter of discussion in the neighbourhood?
Ans.: Rakesh was the son of parents who were illiterate. Varma, the father of Rakesh had come from a vegetable market as Varma’s father was a vegetable seller. Even Varma used to sell vegetables earlier and later he worked for a kerosene dealer and his wife have spent her life in a kitchen. They were from so poor family that Varma. could not attend school at all.. However, despite being a poor vegetable seller, Varma has sent his son, Rakesh to school. And, Rakesh has not only passed the medical examinations but he has brought the top marks the highest marks in the country. Because of this reason, Rakesh’s success is a special matter of discussion in the neighbourhood.
d.How does the author make fun with the words ‘America’ and ‘the USA’?
Ans.: After completing the medical examinations with top marks, Rakesh got a scholarship in the USA. Rakesh and his family proudly preferred the term ‘the USA’ over ‘America’. The fact behind this is that in countries like India and Nepal, the common people are more familiar with the term ‘America’ than ‘the USA’. In many cases, the common and ignorant people do not understand that the terms ‘America’ and ‘the USA’ refer to the same country. Though the common people prefer the name ‘America’, the so-called modern, elites and educated people do not prefer the term ‘America’ and state it ‘the USA’ and express their hypocrisy knowingly or unknowingly. The author has been very clever and introduced this fact in the story tactfully. Hence, the author makes fun with the words ‘America’ and ‘the USA’
e.How does the author characterize Rakesh’s wife?
Ans.: Despite achieving overwhelming success in his study and career, Rakesh married a girl in mother’s childhood friend. She was a plump and uneducated girl. In addition to this, she was his own village picked out by his mother. The girl Rakesh married was the daughter of his so old-fashioned, so placid, so complaisant that she slipped into the household and settled in like a charm, seemingly too lazy and too good-natured to even try and make Rakesh leave home and set up independently, as any other girl might have done. Not only this, the author characterizes Rakesh’s wife as a She too was pretty – really pretty, in a plump, pudding way that only gave way to fat – soft, spreading fat, like warm wax.
f.Describe how Rakesh rises in his career.
Ans.: Rakesh achieved remarkable success not only in his study but also in his career. For some years, Rakesh worked in the city hospital, quickly rising to the top of the administrative organization, and was made a director. After this, he left it and set up his own clinic. He also bought a new, sky-blue Ambassador car and visited the clinic on it. Later Rakesh earned so much fortune that he was regarded as the best and also the richest doctor in the town.
g.How does the author describe Rakesh’s family background?
Ans.: Rakesh’s family was from a very poor background. Rakesh was the son of parents who were illiterate. Varma, the father of Rakesh had come from a vegetable market as Varma’s father was a vegetable seller. Even Varma used to sell vegetables earlier and later he worked for a kerosene dealer and his wife have spent her life in a kitchen. They were from so poor family that Varma could not attend school at all. However, despite being a poor vegetable seller. Varma has sent his son, Rakesh to school. And, Rakesh has not only passed the medical examinations but he has brought the top marks – the highest marks in the country.
h.What is the impact of Rakesh’s mother’s death on his father?
Ans.: After the death of Rakesh’s mother, his old father very quickly went to pieces. He developed so many complaints and fell ill so frequently and with such mysterious diseases that even his son could no longer make out when it was something of significance and when it was merely a peevish whim. He sat huddled on his string bed most of the day and developed an exasperating habit of stretching out suddenly and lying absolutely still, allowing the whole family to fly around him in a flap, wailing and weeping, and then suddenly sitting up, stiff and gaunt, and spitting out a big gob of betel-juice as if to mock their behaviour. Thus, there was a great negative impact of Rakesh’s mother’s death on his father.
i.What did Rakesh do to make his father’s old age more comfortable?
Ans.: Rakesh’s father was broken into pieces after his mother’s death. After the death of his mother, Rakesh took care of his father. He brought him his morning tea in his father’s favourite tumbler and sat at the edge of his bed and discussed and read out the morning news to him. Rakesh, too, on returning from the clinic in the evening, persuaded his father to come out of his room and take the evening air out in the open verandah near the beautiful garden. Rakesh also has arranged the servants to care for his father. He himself helped his father down the steps and onto the bed, soothing him and settling him down for a night under the stars. Thus, Rakesh made his father’s old age more comfortable.
j.Why did the old man try to bribe his grandchildren ?
Ans.: The old man, i.e. Mr. Varma did not have good health, so his son Rakesh, who himself was a doctor, restricted him to eat unhealthy foods cooked outside of the house. Rakesh was concerned about his father’s health and he believed that eating unhealthy food was risking his father’s health. Therefore, Rakesh had banned all unhealthy foods. The old man had a great desire to eat tasty and unhealthy food despite he had no access to that food at all. The only way of getting such food to Mr. Varma was by bribing his grandchildren to bring such food from outside the market. So, he handed over a coin of fifty paisa to his grandson and asked him to bring jalebis worth of thirty paisa and to spend twenty paisa as the grandson liked.
k.Are Mr. Varma’s complaints about his diets reasonable? How?
Ans.: Mr. Varma despite having poor health wanted to eat fried, spicy and tasty foods even if they were unhealthy foods. Mr. Varma in the story regards his death as natural and inevitable and accepts to die earlier fulfilling his desire rather than living long without his desires being ignored. From the viewpoint of the desire of an old man, Mr. Varma’s complaints about his diets are logical. On the other hand, Mr. Varma’s son Rakesh, who himself was a doctor could no way provide unhealthy foods to his father and deteriorate his health further. Mr. Rakesh, being a devoted son, wants his father to live longer in any condition. Thus, from the viewpoint of Rakesh considering the health of Mr. Varma, the complaints about his diets are unreasonable and illogical at all.
Reference to the context
a. How did the Varma couple make sacrifices for their son’s higher education?
Ans.: The background of the Varma’s family was very poor. Rakesh was the son of parents who were illiterate. Varma, the father of Rakesh had come from a vegetable market as Varma’s father was a vegetable seller. Even Varma used to sell vegetables earlier and later he worked for a kerosene dealer and his wife have spent her life in a kitchen.
They were from so poor family that Varma had never stepped inside the school. However, despite being a poor vegetable seller, Varma has sent his son, Rakesh to school. And to this sacrifice of the Varma couple, Rakesh has not only passed the medical examinations but he has brought the top marks – the highest marks in the country.
b.Mr. Varma suffers from diseases one after another after his wife’s death. Would he have enjoyed better health if she had not died before him? Give reasons.
Ans.: When Rakesh’s mother died, his old father went to pieces very quickly. He developed so many complaints and fell ill so frequently and with such mysterious diseases that even his son being a doctor could no longer make out when it was something of significance and when it was merely a peevish whim. He sat huddled on his string bed most of the day and developed an exasperating habit of stretching out suddenly and lying absolutely still, allowing the whole family to fly around him in a flap, wailing and weeping, and then suddenly sitting up, stiff and gaunt, and spitting out a big gob of betel-juice as if to mock their behaviour. Thus, there was a great negative impact of Rakesh’s mother’s death on his father.
Of course, had Rakesh’s mother been alive, Mr. Varma would definitely not suffer from diseases one after another. Before the death of Rakesh’s mother, Mr. Varma was healthy and fine. But with the death of his wife, Mr. Varma developed different diseases one after another. And, these diseases were so mysterious that even his son. Rakesh being an excellent doctor could not diagnose them. This shows that these diseases were more psychological in nature than those physical ones. And, they were the result of Varma’s loneliness, sadness, depression and melancholy, arising due to the death of his wife. Thus we can conclude that Mr. Varma would have enjoyed better health if his wife had not died before him.
c. Dr. Rakesh is divided between a doctor and a son. As a son, he loves his father and worries about his weakening health but as a doctor, he is strict on his father’s diet and medicine. In your view, what else could Rakesh have done to make his father’s final years more comfortable?
Ans.: Analyzing the story, any person finds to be in a very difficult situation when he she is in the position of Rakesh. As a devoted son, Rakesh loves his father and worries about his weakening health. Not only this, Rakesh is fully aware of the desires and interests of his father. Rakesh knows that his father likes to eat sweet, delicious and fried food, such as – halwa, jalebi, fried fish, etc. However, Rakesh being a doctor is aware that giving such foods to his father will further weaken his father’s health. In addition to this, Rakesh being a doctor has to be strict that his father needs to be supplied medicine regularly and the diet of his father should be strictly regulated. If the diet of Varma is not regulated and if the proper medication is not provided to Varma, Rakesh knows that Varma’s health will soon have deteriorated very terribly.
In fact, it is easy to make a complaint but it is very difficult to act wisely when one is in Rakesh’s position. Rakesh has more or less done what an ideal son does to his father. Only one thing he could do to make his father’s final years more comfortable is to provide some additional and adequate time to his father. And, in addition to this, Rakesh could provide some dishes that his father preferred by preparing those dishes in the home and in a healthy way.
d. What does the story say about the relationship between grandfather and grandchildren?
Ans.: The relationship between grandparents and grandchildren is always special. At the present time, the working couples have no time or very little time for their parents and children. During the old days, the grandparents have almost retired from their jobs and are having a leisure life. Since their children get busy in their careers, the only means of grandparents to share their sorrows, happiness and love are their grandchildren. Children also being naive and innocent, love and adore the relationships with their grandparents. In addition to this. the demands of various things which cannot be approached by the weak body of grandparents are supported by the active and restless children.
In the story too, there seems to be a special relationship between grandfather and the grandchildren. The grandfather being fed up by the food provided to him by his son and daughter-in-law (food being hygienic but tasteless), bribed his grandchildren into buying him sweets whispering “Here’s fifty paisa, and run down to the shop at the crossroads and thirty paisa worth of jalebis, and you can spend the remaining twenty paisa on buy me yourself. Eh? Understand? Will you do that?” The grandchildren too happily accepted this offer and obeyed their grandfather. This shows that there exists a special relationship between grandfather and grandchildren.
e.Do you call Rakesh a devoted son ? Give reasons.
Ans.: Rakesh was in fact a devoted son and he shows his character of a devoted son from the very beginning of the story. When Rakesh topped the medical examinations, being grateful to his parents, he touched the feet of his parents. In spite of marrying a foreign girl where he went to study, Rakesh married a girl chosen by his parents. This was also a sign of devotion. Rakesh took care of his mother well before her death and the mother even died happily in the lap of her son, Rakesh.
Even after the death of his mother, Rakesh cared for his father a lot. He was worried about his father’s weakening health. He even manages some time with his father despite having a busy career as a doctor. He even reads the morning paper for his father. Even if he restricts the meal as his father desires, he has done so only to improve the health condition of his father. He provides the regular supply of the medicine as per the requirement to his father. In fact, it is easy to make a complaint but it is very difficult to act wisely when one is in Rakesh’s position. Rakesh has more or less done what an ideal son does to his parents. Hence, we can call Rakesh, a devoted son.
Reference beyond the text
a. Write an essay on The Parents’ Ambition for their Children in Nepali Society. You must give at least five examples.
Ans.:
The Parents’ Ambition for their Children in Nepali Society
The father and mother of a child are called parents. Parents are the first and foremost persons who are responsible for the growth and development of children. And, the responsibility among the parents is not artificial, rather it is natural and spontaneous. Parents, in fact, invest a lot of effort and love in their children and in return for this, they have some dreams and expectations that the parents expect from their children.
The ambition of parents from their children differs greatly on the basis of their education, income, socio-economic status as well as their awareness level. In addition to this, the parents’ ambition for their children also greatly differs from society to society. Considering the parents’ ambitions for their children in Nepalese society, there are two different opinions prevailing. The parents possessing traditional views are strict to their children and impose some strict rules and regulations to be followed by their children. They just want their children what they desire. For example, if the parents want their child to be a doctor, he/she enforces the child to be a doctor by any means. They even don’t consider whether their child’s needs, interests and desires are inclined to the ambition they desire. Most of such traditional parents want their children to become doctors or engineers or pilots. Such also maintain a particular distance from their children. For instance, they do not share the feelings of the child’s love interests and so on with one another. They don’t want their children to be involved in love affairs and they have a great desire and wish that the child marriages only to the person they select.
The other opinion prevailing in Nepalese society is of the modern type and it contrasts greatly with the traditional type of opinion. In this type of opinion, the parents have just one ambition, that is, they love their children being a great and good people. Such parents have a liberal view and they don’t impose their desires and wishes forcibly on their children. For example, if the child wants to be a singer, the parents support their child and encourage him to achieve his/her goal. They in no way want their child to be a doctor or engineer or against the wish of the child. These sort of parents treat their children in a friendly way and there prevails the sharing of all happiness and sadness between the parents and the children. Moreover, all the parents not only in Nepalese society but in all types of societies in the world, want their children to be good, gentle, successful and great persons in their life. The parents of Nepalese society, however, want their children to endow the traditions, culture. customs, languages, and way of life of their parents and ancestors. They also expect their children to be patriotic, brave, humble, polite and gentle. One more thing, the Nepalese parents want from their children, unlike the western parents, is the emphasis and loyalty of the children towards their parents, family, family values and beliefs as well as society and its values and beliefs. Thus, to put every bit of thing in conclusion, we can state that the one and only ambition of the parents in Nepalese society is to see their children be great and successful people in their life.
b.Medicines replace our diets in old age. What can be done to make old age less dependent on medicine?
Ans.: It is a natural and inevitable fact that every person grows weak and feeble in his/her old age. Even the immune system of a person gets weak with ageing and the body cannot fight well against the disease-germs during old age.
As a result, old people are prone to suffer from different illnesses and in order to overcome such illnesses, they have to consume.different medicines as prescribed by the doctors. Apart from this, the old people find themselves lonely and discarded and this leads them to be the victim of different mental and psychological problems too. And, these different illnesses of old people also bring restriction in their diets too and gradually, their diets get replaced by medicines.
Though it is a common thing among the old people taking medicines during their old age, we can hear from some of our old grandparents and elderly people that they haven’t taken even a single pill or drop of medicine. And the reason they cite for this is the exercise, hard work and healthy environment they were accustomed to during their time. This shows that the adequate exercise a person carries out as well as the neat, clean and pure environment in which a person lives, help the person to live a healthy life even during their old age. In addition to this, proper and adequate love, care and consideration towards the old people by their children also keep the old people away from mental and psychological problems. Thus, old age people can be made less dependent on the medicine.
c.Write an essay on “Care of Elderly Citizens” in about 300 words.
Ans: The citizens of a country are considered elderly citizens when they are more than sixty or sixty-five years of age. They are often termed as senior citizens or dependent citizens. The term ‘elderly citizens’ refers to the people whose stage in life is generally called old
age, even if there is no clear-cut definition or identification of the final stage of the normal life span of a human being. This is the age when most people retire from their work. It is very essential to take care of elderly citizens. Therefore, August 21 is celebrated as Senior Citizens Day and this day makes the world aware of the importance of taking care of elderly citizens and helping them with dignity.
As a person becomes old, his body cannot function effectively and efficiently as it used to do when he/she was young. The body of old people becomes physically, mentally and in many cases socially and emotionally weak. As the body ages, elderly people are prone to many diseases. Elderly people can merely earn but a significant amount of money is spent on their care and medicines, therefore elderly people tend to be the subject to abuse from family members. Since ageing cannot be prevented, but we can learn how to deal with arising conditions for great health and care of our loved ones and we need to be very careful in dealing with elderly people since we have to face that kind of life one day.
We can put our small efforts into various things that can yield very much to elderly people. We need to arrange the things and services required for them and in case, we find ourselves busy and with the restriction of time, we need to talk to them carefully and hire someone who can take care of them well. Similarly, we must maintain the periodic visits of our elderly people with the doctors. Another thing, we need to be conscious about our parents is their regular exercise, meditation, yoga and healthy diet. And, it is far better if we accompany our parents during our exercise and mediation too. Our time together with them makes them refreshed and reenergized. Likewise, we need to be sure that the environment where we have kept our old people ensures fall prevention.
Since the body of old people is weak and imbalanced, they are likely to become the victim of falling from and falling in different places. For this, we must ensure that the floors of our rooms are dry, the carpets and mats are non-slippery and the shoes and clothes our elderly people wear are sensible. Likewise, we should fulfil the wish of our elderly people, usually taking them to the pilgrimages and other places they desire to visit during their old age.
The most important thing that we can afford and invest in our near and dear elderly people is time. We need to allocate some time to elderly people and we can talk to them about their happiness and sadness. This relieves elder people from loneliness and probable depression and tends to greatly improve their health. In addition to this, the people at the policy-making level must be very careful regarding the rights and provisions of elderly people. The government must allocate an appropriate sum of money to be provided to them as pensions, old age allowance, discount in health services and medicines as well as in transportation and other sectors. The government also must spend its budget on building old age homes, particularly for the elderly people who don’t have their children and relatives to take care of them. Thus, we can take care of the old people and pay a true tribute to the contribution and sacrifices the elderly people have carried out for our sake.