Secret Daughter

Somer wonders where the years have gone as she exits the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, where she works, on her way to pick up Asha from school. Somer reflects upon how she has had to balance family with her career and notes that she feels as though both areas of her life—being a doctor and being a mother—have suffered: “Somer didn't know that having it all, as she always believed she would, would mean feeling like she's falling short everywhere” (98).

Somer takes Asha to an outdoor playground after school, where she watches Asha hang from the monkey bars. While Somer loves Asha deeply, and feels as though Asha is “her own” child, there is a part of Somer that still wants a biological child: “Asha's arrival into their lives brought many things—love, joy, fulfillment—but it didn't erase all the pain caused by the miscarriages, nor did it completely eliminate her desire for a biological child” (100). 

Kavita, Jasu, and Vijay make their way to Bombay on a four-hour journey in an open-air bus. Their plan is to make their way to a settlement located toward the middle of the city called Dharavi, where they have been told they will be able to find a place to sleep for a night or two while they make a more permanent living arrangement.

Kavita is shocked at how the city is so crowded, and when they arrive at Dharavi, she is further surprised and dismayed to find that it is a completely decrepit shantytown: “[…] little one-room houses made of garbage. They walked slowly, to avoid the rivers raw sewage that runs alongside the huts” (102). The overseer of Dharavi is a “man dressed as a woman in a garish yellow sari,” who approaches them and asks if they need a place to stay. Sensing Jasu’s trepidation, Kavita reminds him that it is only for one night, and they give the man a couple of coins in exchange for a place to sleep. The man brings them to a small, windowless shack with a packed dirt floor and rotten food scraps littering the place. Kavita notes the stench of human waste. She suggests that Jasu take Vijay to get something to eat while she sets about making the place hospitable. Kavita disposes of the food scraps, sweeps the floor, and lays out their bedroll on the floor. After a meager dinner, they all sleep on the single bedroll.

In the morning, they awaken to the sound of honking of trucks nearby. Jasu goes to fetch the family water from a public standpipe, where a long line has already begun to form. When Jasu returns to the shack, he reports that there was a fight among the women in the water line—he is stunned that there are fights ensuing over water. Jasu hands Kavita two glass bottles filled with water, and he leaves the shack to seek out a job. Later that day, Jasu reports that, even after visiting three messenger offices, he still could not find work—there are no jobs.

Two weeks later, Jasu still cannot find work, despite going out every day in search of a manual labor job: “Each morning, he departs hopeful; Every evening he returns to their temporary home dejected again” (109). Dharavi, as they learn, is a dangerous place—fights break out regularly among the residents and police raids are frequent. Kavita knows they must leave as soon as possible. 

It is Thanksgiving Day, and Somer and Kris go about preparing food for their holiday feast. Somer is anxious about making sure everything is in order for the holiday, as she is every year for Thanksgiving. However, compared to a standard traditional Indian meal, Thanksgiving does not seem that elaborate a holiday, in Kris’s estimation: “His family celebrations at home regularly featured at least a dozen dishes, all of which involved more complex preparation than putting a Turkey in the oven for a few hours” (113). Kris reflects back on his first Thanksgiving in America during his first year of medical school when he became enamored with the American Dream. In the intervening decade, Kris achieved that dream: He made it through one of the most challenging residency programs in the country, he got the “pretty blond girl” as his wife, and overall, he leads a comfortable life in San Francisco (115).

Seated at their dining room table, Somer and her immediate family (Somer’s parents, Kris, and Asha) eat turkey, cranberry, sauce, and mashed potatoes—all the usual Thanksgiving staples. As they dine, Kris thinks about how he feels as though Somer has changed, and he misses the woman he fell in love with. Somer raises her wineglass in the air and proposes they make a toast to family.      

Even after six years, Jasu, Kavita, and Vijay are still living in poverty in Bombay. Though they have moved out of the Dharavi slum, their current one-room apartment is not much larger than their former shack.

Jasu works at a bicycle factory now, and he and Kavita go about their morning routine: The alarm clock rings, they pray, they bathe, and Kavita readies breakfast. Jasu’s work at the bicycle factory is strenuous and does not pay well:

In his first month there, he saw two men lose fingers in the machines, and a third severely burned by a welding torch […] [I]f he works an extra hour in the morning and at night, he can earn over two thousand rupees a month, the equivalent of five months’ income in the village (120).

Kavita, meanwhile, has taken a job as a household servant for the wealthy couple, Sahib and Memsahib. Every day, Kavita picks Vijay up from school in the afternoon, and she brings him back to the flat until her workday is through.

That day, Kavita is to get some paneer on her way to pick up Vijay. However, before she does, Kavita decides to make a quick detour past the orphanage where she deposited Usha so many years ago. Kavita peers through the gates to see if she can catch a glimpse of her daughter. The chapter concludes with a letter dated November 1997. Though names are not used, the letter is clearly written by Asha to Kavita: “I wish you were here to help me […] She [Somer] doesn’t know anything about you, or why you gave me away” (125). 

Seven years later, life is still difficult for Kavita and her family. Jasu lost his job at the factory after a raid caused its closure, and they borrowed from a moneylender to pay rent and tuition. Jasu now works at a textile factory, but most of their money goes back to their lender. Vijay has even begun working a few hours as a servant alongside Kavita after school to try and earn a few extra dollars to help the family make ends meet.

Kavita is preparing a lentil soup—called dal—when Vijay comes home from school. They eat alone because Jasu is again working late that day. When Jasu finally arrives home, the landlord hears and rushes to the apartment to demand rent. Jasu reminds the landlord that he is rarely late on payments, but they are in difficult times; the landlord angrily says that Jasu must get him the money by Friday, or their family will be evicted from the apartment. When the landlord finally leaves, Vijay is angry with his father for not being able to provide the money and for not being able to protect the family—he tells Jasu as much. Jasu storms out of the apartment in frustration, upset that Vijay would speak to him so disrespectfully. 

Asha is now a 16-year-old and an editor at her high school newspaper, the Harper School Bugle. She has a passion for writing and spends most of her spare time working on stories for the school paper. After school one day, Asha is chatting with her friends Rita and Manisha before soccer practice. Rita asks if Asha will attend a party that weekend, and Asha replies that she is not sure, but likely not—Kris has been working all weekend, so she has not had the chance to ask him. He is usually “uptight” about Asha attending parties. Manisha and Asha bond over white girls telling them they are “exotic” looking, but Asha experiences a disconnect when Manisha begins talking about her experiences in India. Asha has never been to India, and she is removed from many touchstones of Indian culture.

Later at home, Somer angrily confronts Asha about her report card: Asha received an A+ in English, but a B in math and a C in chemistry. Somer suggests Asha get a tutor, but Asha is incensed. The fight escalates when Asha says that Somer does not understand her and Asha wishes she knew her birth parents because perhaps they really love her and want the best for her. Pushed to her breaking point, Somer snaps: “Well, Asha, at least I tried. At least I tried to be a parent to you. More than those …people in India who abandoned you. I wanted a child, and I've been here Asha. Every single day” (137). Distraught, Asha rushes to her room in tears and slams the door. From a small wooden box, Asha removes the silver bangle Kavita gave her, one of the only keepsakes she has from her birth mother. 

Kavita returns home from work to find their apartment empty, despite that both Jasu and Vijay should be home. Jasu, Kavita suspects, is out drinking, as he has taken to doing lately after a hand injury he sustained at the bicycle factory. Eventually, Kavita goes to collect Jasu at a small park, where men congregate to drink and smoke hookah. Kavita brings him home and helps Jasu, who is completely drunk, into bed. Vijay comes home and is disgusted to see his father in that state; Vijay produces a “wad of cash” from his pocket and presents it to Kavita (143). Kavita knows Vijay, who is just fifteen years old, could not have earned such a large sum of money from his job as a messenger, but she does not question it because they are in desperate need of the money.

The chapter ends with a letter dated July 2001 that is clearly a letter from Asha to Kavita. Asha describes the difficulties she has been having with her parents and how she is looking forward to being independent in college.