The Direction of the Wind discussion

The fact that Rajiv told Sophie that her mother had died implies that he was writing Nita off forever. Yet, he continued to hold out hope that Nita would come home. I wonder how he intended to explain it to Sophie if Nita did in fact return home, or if he had considered the impact his deception would have if and when Sophie discovered the truth.

Sophie was so young at the time and in a culture of collectivism which would make it difficult to decide which trauma to put Sophie through. Would Sophie break more knowing that her mother left, thinking that there would be a better place than with her? Or would it be better to think that Sophie's mother died and it wasn't Sophie's fault that her mom isn't with her anymore?

I can't imagine the devastation that would come if Sophie knew of Nita's true actions since Sophie was still in the developmental stage where things are more black and white rather than the gray we adults understand. I don't have any kids of my own, but I would never want to tell a young child that an adult who was supposed to love and care for them consciously made the choice to leave them.

Rajiv must have thought that saying Nita was dead would give Sophie some hope of moving on and maintaining some innocence. I wonder if Rajiv knew Nita was never coming back and that's another reason why he told Sophie Nita died.