Rakesh is a young man from a low-income Indian family. His family consists of four members: himself, his parents, and a disabled maternal aunt. Previously, there were five of them, but his grandfather passed away about a year ago.
Since childhood, Rakesh has been extremely shy and timid by nature. It's not that he is incapable of standing up for himself or getting into an argument, but his level of shyness is beyond what one might typically even see in a girl. He is terrified of going to new places alone. Because he finds it so difficult to adjust to unfamiliar environments, he has let many great opportunities and job offers slip away. To him, going to a new place by himself feels like descending into hell.
I don't know the clinical or psychological name for this mental condition. It's not that he doesn't want to work or that he is lazy—everyone has a bit of laziness in them—but the reason people label him as "lazy" isn't the actual cause of his struggle. His family even mocks him, saying, "Are you a girl? Why can't you go anywhere alone? Why do you always need someone to go with you?"
He is average-looking—neither particularly handsome nor unattractive. He managed to study up to graduation. He couldn't pursue further education partly because he wasn't exceptionally brilliant, but primarily because of the issue I've been describing: his inability to travel alone. His father had brought him many job leads and opportunities for good courses, but he gave them all up for this single reason.
However, he has recently managed to change himself quite a bit—mostly by forcing himself. It's not that he can move around alone with ease yet, but what can you do? The world doesn't understand his problem, so no one wants to listen or empathize. And it's true that he cannot remain this shy forever; he has to earn a living. He is almost 35 years old now. Yes, 35, and he still doesn't have a stable income.
He runs a tiny cyber cafe from his home, doing photocopies, filling out online forms, and taking photos. But in today's market, a household cannot survive on such work. Since he lives in a village, he doesn't earn as much as he should. Many job opportunities come from the distant city of Kolkata, but he turns them down every time.
There is another worry in his life: his disabled aunt. If he takes a job far away, it will take him a long time to return home. His mother isn't very healthy either. He would constantly be anxious, wondering if the two ailing women at home are okay. Furthermore, his relationship with his father is strained; their opinions are poles apart—as different as heaven and hell. If he works far away, he'll always worry that a fight might break out between his father and mother at any moment.
The problems don't end there. Before 2014, they lived in Kolkata. His grandfather was alive then. Rakesh and his parents lived with his grandfather in his house, and that is where Rakesh did his schooling. However, due to a massive loss in a business venture, his grandfather was forced to sell that house.