Ending of "The Village by The Sea"

I have read a book called "The Village by the Sea" (by Anita Desai), which my school requires the students to read. It was interesting.

In case some of you do not know the story, "The Village by the Sea" is about a boy and a girl, Hari and Lila, whose father was a drunkard and mother was seriously ill. Hari and Lila were forced to earn a living by themselves to take care of their parents and two younger sisters. Thus, Lila had to give up her education to stay in the house to take care of her mother. Hari was forced to work in the fields and try to provide for the family. In desperation of their drastic situation, Hari ran away to Bombay and Lila is left to cope alone.

"The Village by the Sea" does not really provide an full ending. it just says that Hari went back to the village from Thul and the family has a hopeful future as Hari had acquired watchmending skills which might help them to cope with the building of the factory. Therefore, I have written an ending that I think would be appropriate for "The Village by the Sea":

Their mother had turned well, their father mended their ways, everything looked so perfect, as though it had went back to the time when everything was in order, when their father never had the bad and undesirable habit of drinking toddy, when their mother was never ill.

It was already a year since Hari came back from Bombay, came back with unexpected wealth that managed to help Lila to provide for the family. Hari and Lila were always grateful for Mr. Panwallah, Hira-Lal and Jagu's help. For if Hari did not receive any help from them, he could have very easily starve in the city of Bombay, or have to force himself to become a beggar in the streets of Bombay, never to return to Thul as he would never be able to afford it.

It was Diwali, now, and their way of celebration of it had never changed .They never bought expensive stuffs to celebrate Diwali, even as they are able to afford it now. A rangoli was drawn on the floor of their new and large house with coloured powder. Lila had prepared many foods to celebrate Diwali. They would eat all the food they want today to their fulless, not caring whether they had eaten too much, as it was a day for celebration today.

Hari did not open his shop today. Both he and his father had decided that a day off on Diwali would be nice. Hari remembered the times when he struggled to rent a shop for his watchmending business. That time, the factory had already been built, and people were fighting to rent shops. since the set up of the factory, many shops, houses and apartments had been built to meet the needs of the increasing population of Thul. Through many struggles, he managed to rent a shop with a reasonable price. Since that day onwards, life for his family had been relatively carefree. Hari was so busy that he barely had time to talk with his family before it was already late in the night and everybody had went to sleep. And in the mornings, he was often the first to wake from his sleep. Then he would travel to his watchmending shop, the streets deserted, his eyelids heavy from lack of sleep. His watchmending shop had enjoyed an increasing number of businesses since he set up the shop. His shop was the only watchmending shop in town, and without him, how would the people there mend their watches?

His father could not get a job, so his father came to help Hari with his shop. His father had also acquired watchmending skills, from Hari. He was less burdened with his father's help.

Hari had already given up the idea of setting up a poultry farm. He was already so busy with his watchmending shop that he could not spare the time to care for another farm.

Lila's mother had also reduced Lila's burden to care for the family as now she was well and could help Lila with the house chores. Since they had bought the large house, house chores had been more tiring for the both of them. The house was bigger than the hut they stayed in previously, so they had to spend more time when cleaning the house. Although so, they had done their house chores without grumbling or groaning, as they know it was their fortune to be able stay in such a large house and enjoy luxuries they had never had before, like watching a movie in the newly-built theatre, shop for clothes in the overcrowded shopping mall and in the same time enjoying the cool air of the air-conditioner in the shopping mall.

Today, the streets in Thul are beautifully decorated for the celebration of Diwali. Some people, who were diligent, still decided to work today, and were in their working suits or uniform. Others were wearing casual outfits, talking to each other enthusiastically and excitedly, probably shopping in the busy streets of Thul. The factories are very huge, occupying a huge portion of the villages. The building of the factories had caused the building of more buildings, such as shopping malls, shops, houses and apartments. Life in Thul had been quiet, but now it is noisy, with noises blaring from the horns and engines of cars, busses and motorcycles, the talking of the crowd of people at the streets. Nor did life have been so busy, with people rushing to their destinations. Never before in their lives had they predicted that their life would be like that. Nowadays, they even travelled to other countries to have a holiday there, from watching the beautiful and amazing geysers in Yellowstone National Park of United States of America, to scuba-diving in the sea near Bali of Indonesia.

Although the life of Hari and his family were changed so dramatically, they were contented with this new way of life.