Babita Bhatia seduces her father-in-law because he was rich. She married Ratan, because she secretly desired his father. Her mother-in-law “Nani” is aware that Babita flirts with the old man and this became a source of tension. Babita violated boundaries. She gave personal presents to her father-in-law, nicknamed The Colonel, because he used to be an Army officer.
Ratan, Babita’s husband and Sunny’s father, died young. Babita felt old, prematurely old because she was widowed in her 30s. She gets her young son Sunny, to sleep in her matrimonial bed. Until the day he protests by exclaiming he is not her spouse.
Unfortunately for Babita, she is unlucky twice. First, her husband died young. Secondly, her mother-in-law “Nani”, is living a long life.
These are characters in the book The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, by Kiran Desai.
The famous psychologist Freud wrote that he encountered a very young patient, nicknamed Hans, who liked to lie in bed with his father or mother, because it gave him erotic excitement. (The “Wolfman” and Other Cases, p. 11)
In Ms Desai’s book, Sunny has friends and activities to spend his time on. He does not focus his libido on his mom.
When Hans was between the ages of 3 1/2 to 4 1/2, he asked to sleep with his mom.
Sunny, when he was a child/ teen/ young man, didn’t ask to skeep in his mother’s bed. In fact, one day, he suddenly refused to share his mother’s matrimonial bed, and moved back into hiw own bedroom.
Other themes in the book can be read at https://artmater.com/?s=kiran+desai