I Read Stories: The Wild Son

 

The Wild Son by Rajeev Prasad in Tasavvur

Savriti has two daughters but prays for a son. His prayer is answered and he receives a head-child, that grows from his head. He’s a butcher, but his wife is from letters. He has ambitions for his son, but everyone knows that sons follow fathers and Varun will be a butcher too.

Varun steals meat and takes it to the forest. He’s feeding a tigress. He can’t be a butcher, he’s not right for letters. He’s too wild for it.

A story of a child who doesn’t fit, his parents having hopes for him that he can’t fulfil. And a society that has expectations he also can’t fulfil. And more than that, something stranger, more extraordinary.

Read This: A story of wildness breaking into more mundane conflicts between tradition and ambition
Don’t Read This: A boy doesn’t fit in, causes trouble