#147 Private Tuition By Mr. Bose- Anita Desai
Mr. Bose is a private tutor, teaching language and poetry
from his home. Because of the small size of his apartment, and the heat, he
conducts his lessons outside of the roof. From there he can see his wife cook
and care for their child. Between lessons, he briefly visits with them and
wished for more time:
“He wanted so much to touch her hair, the strand that lay
over her shoulder in a black loop, and did not know how to—she was so busy.”
At times, the day gets hectic, the child gets unruly as children
get, tensions grow and tempers flair. Mr. Bose wishes he did not have to teach
these intemperate privileged children, wishes they did not see his meager home,
he wishes, he wishes, he wishes…but the weight of his surrounding pile on:
“But the darkness was filled with hideous sounds of business
and anger and command. The Radio news commentator barked, the baby wailed, the
kitchen pots clashed. He even heard his wife’s voice raised, angrily, at the
child like a threatening stick.”
We do what we must to get by. At the end of the day, the
child goes to be, dinner is served and the tensions of the day alleviated. The
anger—gone, the resentment—gone, all that remains is love and family.
Word of the Day: Tuition- I never knew this word had a
second meaning. Besides meaning the cost of education, it can also be used to
describe the actual “teaching or instruction, especially of individual pupils
or small groups.” Don’t I feel uneducated? I guess I should have spend more tuition
getting a tuition.
Notable Passage: “Immediately, at the very sight of the tip
of her sandal peeping out beneath the flowering hem of her sari, he was a man
broken to pieces, flung this way and that, rattling. Rattling.”
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