Nilesh

Nilesh is the young son of Niyati and Lokesh Jha, and his dependent presence is central to the family crisis that divides them. He is not an independent agent in the available narrative, but the practical and emotional responsibilities surrounding him make the consequences of adult decisions unmistakable. His need for food, transport, shelter, and care turns Niyati’s pandemic displacement into an urgent struggle for survival, while later reports of his adjustment to daycare give Lokesh a limited but meaningful point of contact with the family he has neglected.

Identity and Family Position

Nilesh is described first as an infant in Niyati’s care and later as a three-and-a-half-year-old child living with her in Pune. The changing reference to his age indicates that the prologue’s displacement occurs earlier than the later scene in Lokesh’s New Delhi flat. Across both moments, he remains physically separated from his father and closely dependent on his mother. His position within the family is therefore defined less by speech or independent action than by the demands his care places on the adults around him.

Niyati is carrying Nilesh’s baby stroller when she returns from grocery shopping during the COVID-19 pandemic. His whimpering draws her attention as the elevator opens, and she comforts him by assuring him that they are almost home. The ordinary domestic promise is immediately overturned when the landlord and two men are waiting at the apartment door. Nilesh’s presence makes the eviction more than a dispute over housing: Niyati is being ordered to leave while responsible for a small child and while Lokesh has been unreachable for three days.

Pandemic Displacement

The landlord refuses to continue housing Niyati because she is a pharmaceutical scientist and, in his view, represents an unacceptable risk to the other residents. Niyati protests that she has a baby, but the landlord gives her only an hour to collect essentials and says that her job threatens the safety of the building’s fifteen other flats. The conflict places Nilesh at the center of the landlord’s stated logic of collective protection, even though the policy leaves a mother and child without secure accommodation.

Niyati responds that her work is precisely what will help the country overcome the pandemic. Yet the force of that public responsibility does not protect her private life. With no assistance from Lokesh, she rushes through the flat gathering milk powder containers and other baby supplies, then straps Nilesh into the car’s baby seat and gives him a milk bottle. The concrete routine of feeding and securing him contrasts with the instability around them: she has been expelled, has nowhere certain to go, and cannot safely rely on police or other authorities during the crisis.

Rain begins as Niyati drives through the city, repeatedly trying Lokesh’s number without success. Her only available refuge is Poonawala Mansion, the home of her employer, Nargis Poonawala. Security initially stops her at the gate, but after Niyati sends a message explaining the situation, she is allowed inside. Nargis meets her, pulls her mask over her nose, and calmly arranges for Niyati and Nilesh to stay in a guest quarter while promising temporary accommodation nearer to Niyati’s laboratory. The mansion thus becomes a provisional shelter for the child as well as for his mother.

Relationship to Lokesh Jha

Nilesh’s existence exposes the distance between Lokesh’s professional obligations and his responsibilities as a father. At the time of the eviction, Niyati repeatedly calls Lokesh and pleads internally for him to answer, asking where he is and recalling that he is the man for whom she left her family. His absence leaves her to make every immediate decision about Nilesh alone. Once settled at Poonawala Mansion, she concludes that the night has been the final breaking point and sends Lokesh a message ending their relationship.

The later scene in Lokesh’s New Delhi flat reveals that the separation has not erased his concern for Nilesh. After a nightmare in which Niyati shields him from a bullet, Lokesh wakes in panic and remembers that Niyati is in Pune with their estranged family. He calls despite expecting her anger, explaining that he wants to know whether she and Nilesh are safe. His concern is genuine but belated: the nightmare prompts contact after the practical crisis has already exposed how completely he had failed to be present.

When Lokesh asks how Nilesh is enjoying daycare, Niyati replies that they are both fine and reminds him that she has sent photographs of the child making friends there. The exchange gives Lokesh an indirect view of his son’s life. He calls Nilesh precious and thanks Niyati for keeping him updated despite his absence, but the conversation ends before he can complete his farewell. He whispers that he loves her even though she is no longer on the line, leaving the attempted repair suspended between affection and failure.

Development and Narrative Significance

Nilesh functions as the clearest measure of the cost of the adults’ estrangement. During the pandemic, he is a whimpering infant whose immediate needs force Niyati to act when grief and fear would otherwise immobilize her. The milk powder, bottle, stroller, car seat, and guest quarter are not incidental details; together they show how public danger becomes domestic labor and how a child’s dependence narrows the choices available to a displaced parent.

In the later passage, Nilesh’s growth from infant to daycare-aged child marks time passing while the marriage remains damaged. His making friends suggests an ordinary developmental life continuing beyond the frame of Lokesh’s mission and guilt, yet the fact that Lokesh learns about it through photographs and a brief phone call underscores his distance. Nilesh therefore links the two separated locations—Niyati’s Pune and Lokesh’s New Delhi—and keeps open the possibility of family repair without resolving it. His safety is the immediate concern, his childhood is the evidence of time lost, and his dependence is the moral pressure that makes Lokesh’s promise to return to Niyati more than a romantic declaration.