The Dark Room - R K Narayan

R K Narayan, the creator of Malgudi days. The name itself tempts you to pick the book authored by him. My friend ordered the book from librarywala.com and I asked if I could lend it from her before she returns it. She willingly gave the book to me.

The book is a small novel with 160 odd pages and I completed it within no time. The start of the book was fine. It started with daily chores of Savitri and Ramani and their 3 kids. The Dark Room is a place where Savitri sulks when she has a fight with Ramani. The mention of dark room comes only twice or thrice in the entire book and somewhere not relevant to the title at all.

Savitri is shown to have 2 friends who are irrelevant to the story line except for 1 friend who passes on information to Savitri regarding her husband's rendevous with Shanta Bai, a new recruit and only female colleague of Ramani who is very attractive and holds Ramani's interest.

It's then depicted how Savitri after having a showdown with Ramani, over Shanta Bai, leaves her home and survives 3 days. She however comes back home as she misses her kids. Ramani is changed after the incident and Savitri is in no mood to reconcile and stays back for her kids only (as per my perception).

The novel could easily have been a short story. There are many lose ends which are not neatly tied by the author for e.g. what ultimately happens of Shanta Bai's and Ramani's friendship after Savitri leaves and comes back is left upto readers discretion. The novel could have been a great read had all the lose ends been tied.

Overall an alright book.

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