Page 102 - DENG503_INDIAN_WRITINGS_IN_LITERATURE

Indian Writings in Literature

Notes The Sari Shop, even if only partially successful, is an attempt to look at a gated community from
below, from the point of view of the world of the household – maids, drivers and washerwomen–
and its extension into the commerce of daily life in the form of office boys and the owners and
attendants at vegetable stalls and kirana stores. It actually works better than a novel far more
acclaimed outside India for its portrayal of ‘the seamy side of the Indian reality’ – The White Tiger.
The two books explore some of the same territory, but so much is shrugged off in Adiga’s book,
including the ease with which the central character acquires his knowledge of English in a Bihar
village, that his driver remains a cipher, a mouthpiece for the author himself, in tone and in
thought. An experiment with form cannot be born out of the need to conceal an ignorance of the
material at hand.
Ramchand’s fate as he seeks to make sense of a motor tour to Wales is not very removed from the
one that awaits an Indian reader of recent works of FIE. Maybe we could rescue ourselves from
this fate if we were used to reading literature that lay outside the Anglo-American world. Societies
similar to ours have produced literature that resonates far more in our context. We should take
note of the diversity of central Europe of the early twentieth century, a diversity Magris so vividly
describes. I certainly find the echoes of my surroundings in the clash of languages and identities
that was mediated by the vast bureaucracy of the Hapsburg Empire. The best guides to this era are
still writers such as Robert Musil and Hermann Broch, and for this reason they are good guides to
our world as well. I know of nothing quite as insightful about the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s
sudden emergence in small-town India as Broch’s The Spell, which traces the rise of fascism
through the eyes of a doctor who has moved to a remote mountain village. These authors also
point to another possibility we could explore, which is the presence of the intellect in the narrative,
so far from the fear of ideas that besets the Anglo-Americans. I could quote from Zadie Smith
again but I think a reader would be far better served by dipping into Musil’s The Man Without
Qualities.
Self-Assessment

1. Fill in the blanks:
(i) Ram Karan's youngest daughter who emigrated to the USA and married an American and
who now returns to adopt the teenage ............... .
(ii) As Ram Karan admits at a moment of typical ............... .
(iii) The Sevak Sari Shop attracted all sorts. They have a strict task master of a boss called
............... who used to ensure that they catered to all the customers in the best way they
could.

11.3 Summary

• The novel opens with the description of a typical day in the life of Ramchand, in the bustling
by lanes of the older part of the town of Amritsar. Orphaned in his childhood and having to
live with his uncle, he deals with many hardships and has to forgo his dreams of getting an
education, as he is made to fend for himself at a young age. He starts out as an apprentice at
the sari shop and from then on his life is primarily restricted to the store with occasional trips
to the nearby dhaba and the movies.
• The plot in itself is exceedingly simple. Rani is your girl-next-door in every middle class
family. She left school after barely completing class nine and works in a beauty parlor as an
assistant. Even though real-life-problems keep intruding in the form of a broken home which
can barely survive the next monsoon and a vile sister-in-law, she is essentially happy reading
Filmfare, watching Shah Rukh Khan movies and making up stories to her nephew, whom she
loves like her own son.

96 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY