#382 Gifts of Summer- Sandip Roy
As the stories in Don't Let Him Know get deeper, we see the threads forming into
shapes. The strength of these characters is the foundation of their family.
Romola talks with her sister-in-law about America, a place they have both lived
at some point. When asked why she doesn’t return, Romola says: “It wasn’t home.
I thought if I had a child…he needed to grow up among his cousins and
grandparents.”
They live in their family house, thick with memories and
love. And even as Calcutta is described with the stench of garbage and the
overwhelming summer heat, the confines of the house sound intoxicating:
“Amit grew to love the afternoons best of all. Upstairs his
mother and aunt would lie in bed…their conversations slowly losing steam and
trickling away into nothingness as they fell asleep. All over the house the
windows would be shut against the heat. Skinny drips of sunlight would leak in
through cracks in the shutters and puddle on the floor.”
As much a story about family as it is about social class and
privilege. Amit gets gifted a watch that cost half a year’s salary for their
family maid. When the watch disappears, the maid’s granddaughter is wrongfully
blamed, and generations of trust are thrown away for a lie from a naïve rich
boy, trying to protect only himself from a mere scolding.
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