The Painter of Signs by RK Narayan is one of The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jan/23/bestbooks-fiction seen from this perspective here http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world 9 out of 10

 The Painter of Signs by RK Narayan is one of The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jan/23/bestbooks-fiction  seen from this perspective here http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world

9 out of 10

 

 

The Painter of Signs has brought some memories back, from the time when we used to make…signs, for companies to put up, above their main entrance, of those signs was right in the middle of the city, for Medair, at the University Square, but then we had to abandon this line of business, because we were selling foil (and still are, though with Covid, the Russian invasion in the Ukraine and the unrest, turmoil in markets, and other storms, the sales are not what we expected and the assistant referee that is managing the business had promised) and the clients complained that we are competing with them…

 

Raman is the hero of the love story, The Painter of signs from the title, who says about himself ‘I want a rational explanation for everything, otherwise my mind refuses to accept any statement, I am a rationalist and I don't do anything unless I see some logic in it ‘and his statement provokes an amusing response from one of his clients, the lawyer who wants a sign – alas, he likes to have it without paying for it – says ‘What more logic do you want than I pay for this’ and there would be some dispute over the style of the writing and details that the painter sees as necessary and would not compromise over

He loves calligraphy and feels that ‘sign board painting was an important link in society, without it no one would know what another was doing, brought up a strict vegetarian’, Raman is rather erudite, he mentions quotes form the ancients, but also George Bernard Shaw and Albert Einstein, his great pleasure is to pick books from an antiquarian, whose shop appears to sell nothing, and he has an exquisite sense of humor, when crowds gather as he puts on signs, he is musing over them asking for autographs from him…

 

He can be scathing and think that ‘all these people do is sit around idle and gape, watch others work’…this was something Jerome K Jerome said ‘I love work, I can watch people work for hours’… He wanted to get away from sex thoughts...’money and sex too much everywhere, in literature, magazines, cinema...’ this habit of repressing desires could have a very serious, maybe devastating effect later, when he would be with someone he loves in a remote place and he would jump to impose himself on her.

With the lawyer, he argues over the board and the money, because some sand had flown on his paint, while he was trying to dry it in record time – he had warned the client that time is needed to produce the sign, but the man is superstitious and does everything according to what his astrologer says and the good auspices would be at the exact time, on a day that comes too soon for the best advertising to be ready – and he often has to deal with bigots, people who do not pay and he has a rival, competitor…

 

One fine day, he meets with Daisy, the woman that Raman would fall in love with, she only gives this Western name and with time, we will find parts of her story, how she had lived in the middle of a traditional family, with many siblings, cousins, uncles, and other relatives, feeling overwhelmed by this crowd – part of the explanation for her choice of career later, she would be ‘obsessed’ with population control, only she is right to see in the diminishing of the immense number of births as one of the solution to India’s problems and the world’s, for we have reached the point where the planet is not coping with the needs of a huge humanity, if people in countries of the world were to enjoy the American average standard, then we would need a few planets to provide the resources needed – and eventually trying to escape.

This trauma comes to a climax when she is told she has a suitor, a rich, handsome man, who comes to ‘inspect’ the bride to be, only Daisy has been from a tender age a determined, courageous, original iconoclast and she is the one who replies with ‘how about you’ when she is asked about her music training and other things, provoking a fierce reaction and bringing shame upon the family, they say that her siblings and relatives would not be able to marry from now on, because of the outrage she had provoked.

 

Women were supposed to be docile, obedient and more or less accept slavery, and not just in India, alas, this kind of thing is still happening today, one example is Afghanistan under the Taliban…however, Daisy would become the opposite, she runs away from her family and then dedicates her life (as far as we know and can envisage it, it is risky, given that she is young, to assume that it will be for decades) to family planning – this is how she meets Raman, for her activity needs a sign outside the office and this is the man to do it, in the city to start with, but across the area in the near future…

The Painter of Signs is attracted to the woman and he has a difficult time trying to keep it under control, his philosophy had been one of abstinence – remember, he was raised as a vegetarian  - but his serenity finds an end when he gets to know the woman who would give him work, keep him under her power…it is intriguing to see Raman change under the charm of his employer, he is amazed to see Daisy so attached to the idea of population control, when he is quite indifferent to what others to in their intimacy.

 

She is clearly right to see the lighting speed with which the number of people increases as a calamity in the making and she has arguments, look at the lack of food, space, the crowds that we can see everywhere, there is no chance for progress if this continues…daisy is dedicated and she takes her campaign to the countryside, where she travels with Raman, and they meet with villagers, their leaders, elders, trying to promote means of birth control, even in hostile surroundings, at one point, they are left alone in a cart, because the bull pulling it has had an accident and this is a nadir, for when they are separated, the man submits to his savage impulses and thinks, tries to rape the woman he ‘loves’, only the latter had anticipated this and escaped through the other side of the cart, later going back home alone and cutting connections for a while, somewhat inexplicably, she returns to him and they look as if they will ‘live happily for ever after’ but something changes and we are back into a complex situation again…

 

 For more notes, if the above was of interest to you, you can access the blog http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html