The meaning of Rakesh’s behavior and Varma’s response can be appreciated only against the backdrop of India after independence. The narrator says,

How one man—and a man born to illiterate parents, his father having worked for a kerosene dealer and his mother having spent her life in a kitchen—had achieved, combined and conducted such a medley of virtues, no one could fathom, but all acknowledged his talent and skill (Paragraph 10).

The reader needs to know what was happening in India before Rakesh was able to go to America to become a doctor. The details of his father and mother being a kerosene dealer and working in a kitchen may seem typical, but it’s important to realize that they didn’t have any other options.

Due to the political strife that occurred during the 1960s and 1970s, there was little way for them to improve their lot, and it only became possible for Rakesh to have the opportunity once the political climate changed. This implies that Rakesh has a privilege that his parents did not, but without knowing that cultural context, Rakesh’s ability to rise above the odds would appear as a fluke when it was tied to the passage of time and progress