Burying Your Life

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Burying your life by Harkiran Dhindsa Breaking up a family is hard for everyone involved. It is hard for the one who makes the decision, but it is surely no less hard for the rejected part. This is evident in Harkiran Dhindsa’s short story, “Burying Your Life”, where Rahul tries his best to keep his family together even though his wife has her mind set on leaving him and taking their son with her. As in many cases, this is not a joint decision. This makes it all the more difficult for Rahul to come to terms with. In trying to convince his wife to stay, he uses their son as a main argument. And the children are indeed the real losers when mum and dad decide to go their separate ways. The short story “Burying Your Life” written by Harkiran Dhindsa and published in 2010 is about a family that is falling apart because the love is missing. Rahul and his wife Sarah are preparing a funeral for their son Tom’s cat named George. The funeral takes place in the backyard of their home in London. There is obviously some tension in the air between Rahul and Sarah. They try hard not to argue while Rahul is digging the hole. Sarah has decided to leave for Yorkshire together with Tom to seek out her past life romance, Chris, who she met again recently. Although she swears not to have slept with him, she is ready to leave behind her husband and their mutual home. In the hope that Sarah might change her mind, Rahul tries to get her to stay for a few more days on pretext of not wanting the cat’s funeral to be Tom’s last memory of his childhood home. The short story is told from a third person narrator and from the main character Rahul’s point of view. Rahul is of Indian descent and has been married to Sarah for nine years. Together they have a son named Tom. A month ago, his wife broke the news to him that she had met a man named Chris who she knew when she was 18 years old.
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