On the flight to Mumbai, I watched Le Fils de l'Epicier, a modest, charming French film that follows the return of the prodigal son. The son of the title (Nicolas Cazale) is a prickly, depressed lad who takes over his ailing father's grocery run through the villages of Provence. Initially acerbic, full of resentments and conscious of unpaid bills, he begins to like his eccentric old customers, softens, finds love (with the charming Clotilde Hesme) and has a rapprochement of sorts with his father.
I was put in mind of it when I had my customary glass of sugarcane juice at the Rajawadi Raswanti Griha. The taciturn middle aged bhaiyya was absent, replaced by a young lad who may or may not have been his son. Like the grocer's son, he was abrupt in taking my order and keen to settle payment as quickly as possible. One lives in the hope that age and experience will soften le fils de vendeur de jus de canne à sucre (the French mouthful for a sugarcane juice seller's son as provided by this translation site).
I went home for the funeral of my youngest uncle. It wasn't the best of times, the bookends of the siblings had fallen off leaving my grandparents remaining fils a shocked and disoriented middle. It is already more than three weeks since the event and some of the early shock has subsided. While my uncle's absence was sudden, its aftermath is likely to play out over time.
I was put in mind of it when I had my customary glass of sugarcane juice at the Rajawadi Raswanti Griha. The taciturn middle aged bhaiyya was absent, replaced by a young lad who may or may not have been his son. Like the grocer's son, he was abrupt in taking my order and keen to settle payment as quickly as possible. One lives in the hope that age and experience will soften le fils de vendeur de jus de canne à sucre (the French mouthful for a sugarcane juice seller's son as provided by this translation site).
I went home for the funeral of my youngest uncle. It wasn't the best of times, the bookends of the siblings had fallen off leaving my grandparents remaining fils a shocked and disoriented middle. It is already more than three weeks since the event and some of the early shock has subsided. While my uncle's absence was sudden, its aftermath is likely to play out over time.
