confides in his cousin, who has stopped by his shop to try out the day’s sweets. His cousin is careful with the kind of advice he gives Jagan over the issue; he asks Jagan to talk with his son to understand his point of view. However, it seems that Jagan is not comfortable with the idea of talking to his son about what he considers a “strange notion”; he asks his cousin to talk to Mali in his stead.

The cousin passes by Mali’s college after this talk with the young man’s father and sees students and staff members at the college bid Mali farewell. Later, he chances on Mali at the college gates and invites him to a meal at the Ananda Bhavan. From the conversation that ensues between the two, the cousin determines that Mali desires to be a writer and that the young man is unhappy with his studies at his college. He passes this information to Mali’s father, who is the more confused about his son’s strange choice of career.

Afterward, the son and father have a conversation about the son’s decision to quit college, and slowly, the father becomes more accepting of his son’s decision. He even talks to his friends about his son’s writing ambitions; he tells them that the young man is already preparing to participate in a novel-writing competition that offers a prize of twenty thousand rupees to the best writer. From the events in this chapter, it is clear that there is a communication gap between Jagan and his son.