Sunil -- Week Three

Paul cares for Max, who has come down with a fever. During Sunil's session, Paul and Sunil prepare and drink tea from a local Bengali shop. Sunil compares the undignified determination of the contestants on the TV show 'Survivor' with his daughter-in-law Julia's treadmill workouts. Yet, as Paul points out, in both cases Sunil feels compelled to watch. Probing further about Sunil's recollections of Arun and Julia's visit to Calcutta, Paul learns that Kamala had identified a woman from the neighborhood for Arun to marry who had, according to Sunil, "the face of a bullfrog." Instead, he brought back the beautiful Julia, whose physical displays of affection for Arun made his parents deeply uncomfortable. Sunil's views were reinforced just the past week during a family dinner in honor of Sunil and Kamala's anniversary when Julia left to meet one of her young authors, Ethan Barr. Vividly describing Julia's appearance and fragrance as she said goodbye to him, he is convinced she is having an affair. Sunil recalls a moment in his life when he was deeply in love with a university classmate named Malini. However, she was not from a Brahmin family, and so they broke it off. Sunil has not told anyone else about Malini, and Paul reassures him that he would never reveal information about a patient unless someone was in danger. Paul asks Sunil if he feels jealous of Arun and Julia's marriage or betrayed by Julia's possible affair. Sunil laughs for an uncomfortably long time as Paul looks on, befuddled.