The story continues

Many years later, a doctor came at around midnight to the house where Ganapati’s brothers and sister were living. Their house was in a spiritual community thousands of miles away from their village home. The doctor, who was a very nice, well-educated man, said that he was Suren’s son. He was able to tell correctly the names of all of Ganapati’s family members, so everything was absolutely true.

The only thing he did not know was that his father had robbed Ganapati’s father’s bank. Suren did not have the heart to tell his children what he had done, and neither did his wife. They had simply told their children that Ganapati’s relatives were now all living in a spiritual community.

Ganapati’s eldest brother was virtue incarnate. He took this doctor to his aunt’s house. His aunt was fighting with herself over whether she should hold a grudge against Suren’s son. But after a while she just went and embraced her grand-nephew.

Afterwards, this doctor brought his mother, his wife and his four-year-old daughter to visit Ganapati’s family and they all stayed at the family’s house. His mother started asking to be forgiven. She said, “Because you people are not married, it is easy for you to forgive. For others, it would be impossible, but we feel that you will forgive us.”

Ganapati’s sister, Chanchala, and his aunt were trying desperately to end the conversation so that the son would not find out what his father had done.