Author: Vinod Kumar Shukla
Translator(s)/ Editors(s): Satti Khanna
Publisher: National Book Trust
Year: 2009
Language: English
Pages: 219
ISBN/UPC (if available): 9788123756059
Description
One of the foremost novels of Hindi literature, The Servant's Shirt engages the reader with its comic wit and pungent satire.
Santa Babu ekes out a living as a junior clerk in an excise office. He works diligently but the rules he is supposed to follow seem mysterious. At certain times of the year, clerks may not walk under jack fruit trees. At other times, they are required to try on a thick white shirt which the Sahib keeps in his garage. For some of the office workers the frustration of the day can only be relieved by late night revelries in the warehouse of confiscated goods.
But Santu Babu does not join these celebrations. He has been married only recently and has family responsibilities. The house he rents from the town doctor leaks terribly. The doctor's wife wants to turn his wife into a domestic servant. Where shall Santu Babu and his wife find a window within such walls? Into their mundane lives, the author introduces the freedom of an individual's imagination and gradually - - in this brilliant novel - - imagination does its work.
A satirical masterpiece about small-town India.