Family Matters: Chapter 3 Summary & Analysis

Later on the night of Nariman’s birthday, Jal and Coomy are alone in their apartment after Nariman has gone out for a walk. Coomy hears a dull thud and worries that burglars may be trying to get inside. When she goes to the door, though, she finds two men who have carried Nariman back to the apartment after he fell into a pit. Nariman says he thinks his ankle might be broken. Jal runs to a building across the street where a doctor he knows, Dr. Fritter, lives. Dr. Fritter tells Jal that they must take Nariman to the hospital immediately.

At the hospital, doctors run X-rays. They then affix Nariman with a cast that goes up to his thigh. The treatment is complicated by Nariman’s Parkinson’s and osteoporosis. At the hospital, one of the doctors who attends to Nariman, Dr. Tarapore, is Nariman’s former student. He took Nariman’s English class with Nariman in college because the class was compulsory for science students. The doctor remembers Nariman fondly, and he’s pleased to see that Nariman’s sarcasm remains intact. After a couple of days, Dr. Tarapore releases Nariman from the hospital, and he travels home in an ambulance. Jal rides with him.

When Jal and Nariman get home, Coomy isn’t there. She’s at the temple saying prayers for Yasmin because it’s the anniversary of Yasmin’s death, which Nariman forgot about. When Coomy returns home, she has a bedside commode for Nariman. Dr. Tarapore told them to get a bedpan because Nariman isn’t supposed to stand for about a month while recovering, but Coomy thought the commode would be easier to use. When Nariman tries to use it, though, the scene quickly descends into chaos, and they struggle to get his clothes off. Coomy tells Nariman that he’ll have to live without pajamas for the next month.

Nariman then recalls when Lucy came back into his life after he married Yasmin. Three months after that marriage, Lucy began pursuing him again. She would show up at his work or on the road below the apartment where he lived with Yasmin, Jal, and Coomy. Lucy continued doing that for two years. Nariman would sometimes talk to her, but he didn’t have the heart to tell her firmly to stop, though that was what Yasmin recommended he do. One day, fed up with the state of affairs, Yasmin stole Nariman’s clothes. For the whole day, she wouldn’t give them back. Finally, at night, when Lucy appeared outside, he wrapped himself in a towel and went to talk to her. He told her she had to stop pursuing him. He then went back inside and told Yasmin that Lucy wouldn’t come around anymore.

In the present, before Nariman goes to bed, Jal gives him a spoon and a frying pan to bang if he needs anything in the night. Nariman bangs the spoon and frying pan three times in the night. The last time, it’s at three a.m. for a bowel movement. The process of getting Nariman onto the commode is difficult once more, and Coomy gags when she wipes him. Afterward, Jal and Coomy say things can’t go on like this, and they decide to talk about what to do tomorrow.