Mother-Son Devotion and Resentment

Throughout The True True Story of Raja the Gullible, the relationship between Raja and his mother Zalfa anchors the narrative. At home he cooks for her, dyes her hair, manages her medications, and sleeps in the same room, all while complaining that she suffocates him. Zalfa, for her part, alternates between treating Raja as an extension of herself and defending him with ferocious loyalty against relatives, blackmailers, and bureaucrats. This mix of exasperation and tenderness shapes Raja’s emotional world from childhood through her sudden death.

The theme of mother–son devotion and resentment deepens as disasters compound. In the banking collapse and pandemic, Raja resents having to shepherd Zalfa through queues, protests, and lockdown boredom, yet he cannot imagine leaving her. She oversteps constantly, sharing his secrets, showing strangers his childhood photographs, and rearranging his household without consent. At the same time...