The City Son Read Online Free PDF Page A

his mother sat on their bed in Bangemudha, he with this lungi wrapped around his waist, gazing into her eyes, speaking softly to her. He remembers his father buying gifts for his mother—earrings, a scarf, and the special titaura she likes. His father took them on outings, to the Balaju Gardens, to Gokarna, even to the movies.
    In the end, it’s decided that Tarun will visit Bangemudha every Saturday to spend the afternoon. This will enable him to bond with his brothers and also spend time with his father. Apsara agrees to this with great reluctance, and Amit is angry that he’s unable to fulfill Didi’s wish that they not return home without Tarun.

CHAPTER SIX

    A PSARA GOES TO work, crossing the Bagmati Bridge in the morning, but Tarun doesn’t know how much work she really does. She has always been a small woman; now she appears to have shriveled even more. The river is raging; it’s monsoon, and the waves are striking the shores like they’re ready to break something. The boy has swum in this river on Saturdays on his way to Bangemudha. He can’t stand what’s happening to his mother—the way she is falling apart—and he goes to the river and strips down to his underwear and swims. He’s made a couple of friends here, street urchins who are awed by the fact that he lives in a flat, attends a boarding school, and speaks good English, and yet here he is among them, swimming in the river like a commonruffian. He doesn’t tell them about his mother. When they ask him where his father is, he tells them that he’s gone abroad to work. He pretends Mahesh Uncle is his father, and he tells his river friends that his father travels abroad to countries like Japan and Australia and holds meetings with ambassadors and ministers. Mahesh Uncle has visited the flat two times, and both times he has brought Tarun gifts, at one time a set of colored pens and at another time a box of chocolates. “From Switzerland,” he said.
    Mahesh Uncle is also worried about Apsara. He is a large-bodied man, large jawed. He is always in suits. Apart from serving on the board of the bank where Apsara works, he owns Mahesh Enterprises, a trading company that imports cigarettes and alcohol and exports handicrafts and carpets. The company also owns a small guesthouse in Thamel, with plans afoot to open up a larger resortstyle hotel in the lakeside city of Pokhara. He travels quite a bit—Singapore, Dubai, sometimes Australia and Japan. He breathes heavily, especially when he’s standing. He has a kind heart, and the boy needs someone with a kind heart in his life right now.
    “ Afno khayl rakhnu parcha ,” Mahesh Uncle says to Apsara. “ Yo ta timro matrai kura hoina ni . If you neglect yourself, who is going to look after our dear Tarun?” She looks ashamed and embarrassed when he says this. I can take care of myself , Tarun wants to tell Mahesh Uncle. And I can take care of my mother .

    One early evening Mahesh Uncle drops by and becomes distraught to find Apsara asleep in bed, facing the wall. Tarun is doing his homework. Apsara doesn’t even realize that Mahesh Uncle has come and that he has noticed the empty stove. When Tarun tried to wake her up after school, she had mumbled and moaned but had not woken up. He had looked around for the usual packet of Arrowroot biscuits he snacked on until his mother cooked dinner, but there were no biscuits. He could have gone next door and asked for some food from the neighbor, but he was too embarrassed, so he sucked on a piece of an old candy he found in his pocket and settled down to do his homework.
    Mahesh Uncle has come because Apsara has begun to accumulate quite a number of absences, and her immediate supervisor is unhappy, and her colleagues critical; they complain that she has a free rein because she has a patron on the board of directors. They say “patron” sarcastically, but Tarun knows there’s nothing between Mahesh Uncle and his mother. Every now and then, however, Tarun