He took the boy aside and slapped him soundly a few times.
Vishnu was taken aback and said, "Merwan Seth, I bought the ticket with my own money. I have not stolen anything! Why are you beating me?"
"Did you ask me if you could go to the movies?" Merwan Seth replied. "Didn't I tell you that I would be your father? Why didn't you ask me before going to the movies?"
Vishnu did not reply, for he instantly knew that from then on he should not do anything without Merwan's permission. Kakubai was delighted with the change in her son's attitude.
After a while, Merwan Seth stopped going to Kakubai's for lunch and began eating lunch cooked by Memo. A twelve-year-old boy named Madho Maroti Gavhane was hired by him to fetch his afternoon meal from his mother's house and bring it to the toddyshop. Madho was intimidated by Shireenmai, but he became another of her unwitting spies. Every day when Madho came to pick up the food, she would interrogate him about her son's activities: "Who visited my son? ... To whom does he give money? ... What does he do in the shop? ... Do people cheat him? ... Does he allow anyone to steal from him?" Madho would innocently tell her everything.
When Merwan Seth came home, Memo would browbeat him over his impractical, unbusinesslike ways. Then she would turn to her husband and ask him to reproach their son about the need for running a prosperous toddyshop. To appease her, Bobo would pretend to be angry and scold his son — while making light of the affair the whole time, winking at Merwan.
During this period Memo fell ill and Merwan Seth stopped having his meals sent from home. However, Memo still insisted upon seeing Madho and would interrogate him, "Who sends food to my son now? What do they feed him? Does he eat it?" and so forth. Explaining that it was usually plain dal and rice with vegetables, Madho informed her that Merwan Seth took meals from Kakubai and sometimes from Sadashiv Patil's wife.
When she heard this, Memo became displeased, stormed out of the house and hired a tonga to Sadashiv's house. There she berated his wife Gita, who patiently and quietly heard Memo's long list of complaints against Merwan and his associates and activities. Gita sympathized with Memo and offered a sweet delicacy called puran poli . The dessert calmed Memo and she went home in a happier mood.