Summary
The novel begins in the fictional city of Malgudi, India during the 1970s. Raman is a sign painter who works all over the city, painting signs for different businesses. He is hired by a lawyer to paint a sign for his office. They immediately begin to argue. The lawyer asks for it to be done by 11 am the following day. Raman says he needs at least five days for the paint to dry properly. The lawyer says he will explain his reasoning over coffee. They walk over to a coffee shop together.
The lawyer informs Raman that his astrologer told him that he must have the board by exactly that time. Raman remains incredulous. They disagree about the price point of Raman's services. The lawyer asks that the letters be slanted, which further annoys Raman. They argue about the styling of the letters. Raman says that he should have straight letters, not slanted ones, as he is not a "kerosene" merchant. In frustration, Raman caves to the lawyer's demands and agrees to have it done the following morning.
Raman works late into the night. The next day, the lawyer arrives at his office and looks at the sign. Raman begins nailing up the sign as a crowd of onlookers watches. The lawyer sees the sign and says he doesn't like it, saying its stucco style makes it look like there is dirt in the paint. Raman says he can paint another one and the lawyer says that will work. He goes home, thinking about all of the things that he could have done with the money the lawyer was supposed to pay him. He undresses at home and reflects on how money is a perpetual worry for him.
He lives with his aunt, who raised him as a child. He speaks with her briefly before heading back out. He has lunch at the Boardless Hotel, taking his regular spot. He eats, pays his bill, and leaves. He comes back home and looks around his room. It is sparsely furnished and filled with the books he read in college, including works by Plato, Gibbon, and Dickens. He loves reading a great deal. While she is cleaning up after dinner, his aunt talks about her life story. She tells him if he were to write it, he would have to begin when she was ten years old.
They talk further and she recounts her happy and prosperous childhood. Raman is quietly irritated by this, as he has heard all of these stories before and distrusts her faith in tradition. He reads for a little while and then goes back out. Annoyed with her questions, he grumbles at her and departs. He goes to the storefront of a vendor of bangles. He sees that a sign he painted for him that reads "Strictly Cash" is still in its plastic cover. He also takes note of the way the man constantly touches the wrists of the women he is selling bangles to.
The man tells him that the color of the word "cash" is too red. Raman says that he asked for it to be that color. The man flirts with a customer and asks Raman to change the sign. Raman asks if he will pay him and the man says only if he changes the color. Raman says painting the sign blue will make it look wrong. He says he will not change it and leaves. As he walks, he once again thinks about the money he has lost in this deal.
He talks to another business owner who asks for his sign to include a small subtitle. He wants the subtitle to read "also for credit," meaning that customers can also purchase things on credit. The man asks for this to be written in green, to Raman's disgust. He continues on his way and attempts to collect from another customer, a local professor, who also puts him off. He regrets all of these transactions and thinks angrily about how he has been short-changed by all of these people.
Analysis
Quality work is a central theme of this first section. Raman is constantly losing money because he refuses to cave to customers' unreasonable demands. The lawyer asks for a sign with tacky lettering and dislikes the stucco effect Raman gives the letters. The bangle-seller similarly wants part of his sign repainted blue and not red, despite Raman saying blue will not look good or make an impression on his customers. Raman constantly runs up against difficulties with his work, as he refuses to sacrifice the quality of his work to meet the demands of the people he is working for. His careful approach to his trade remains unappreciated as he fails to get paid for any of the work he does. Narayan uses Raman's struggles to highlight the difficulty of his work, showing how the care he puts into painting signs actually works against his financial interests.
Obligation is another recurring theme in these pages. Raman lives with his aunt. He finds her somewhat irritating as she is fond of long reminiscences about her childhood and frequent remarks about her traditional upbringing. Raman vacillates between annoyance and guilt, as he feels obligated to his aunt for the care she has provided to him over the years. This obligation translates into Raman having the sense that he owes her something, despite not really enjoying her company. Narayan shows how obligations often create relationships of necessity between family members who would otherwise dislike each other and have little to nothing in common.
Desire is also a significant theme in this part of the book. Raman experiences sexual desire often, finding himself distracted by beautiful women all over Malgudi. At home, he thinks to himself that this desire is often a source of tension in his life, as it draws his attention away from his work. He thinks that desire and money are his two constant thoughts and that they both do him little good. Raman frames desire as a non-essential feeling that he cannot rid himself of. He is torn between his intellectual pursuits, like painting and reading, and his more earthly wants, like money and physical affection. Narayan highlights this tension to underscore Raman's divided self. He struggles to be a great sign painter, but finds that his craft is diluted by these distracting daily thoughts.
Tradition is a theme in this section as well. Raman's aunt talks at length about the joys of her strict upbringing and how it brought great prosperity and happiness to her life. She believes that a good life is largely determined by faith alone. Raman is skeptical about this and asks her pointed questions about why she believes these things so firmly. This is a continual source of tension between the characters. As the story continues, Raman will continue to see the harm caused by certain aspects of tradition, with particular regard to gender roles. This part of the story draws attention to the clash between modern and traditional values, as personified by these disagreements between Raman and his aunt.
This first part of the book draws attention to Raman's sources of daily frustration. His business remains unprofitable, as he cannot paint a sign he doesn't like or think is up to his standards of visual quality. He feels obligated to his aunt who spends all day bragging about herself and espousing ideas he disagrees with. He experiences a distracting amount of desire but has no outlet for it. In short, he is stymied in every area of his life. His sole moments of happiness seem to occur when he is working or reading, living in a realm outside the friction of human interaction.
