Bhanumati Mishra's Review published a few days ago in MUSE INDIA

 A review of THE TAILOR'S NEEDLE published in MUSE INDIA Issue 49, May-June 2013.

Bhanumati Mishra: ‘The Tailor’s Needle’

Book Review 

Lakshmi Raj Sharma 
The Tailor's Needle 
Fiction 
New Delhi: Penguin Books India. 2012 
ISBN: 9780143416760 
Paperback: Pages 336. Price Rs 350 

A different and gripping 'Raj' novel 

Penguin has come out with a brand new edition of Lakshmi Raj Sharma's debut novel The Tailor's Needle in December 2012. Its first edition was published by Picnic Publishing, UK in 2009. Out of the innumerable 'Raj' novels, this latest avatar promises to be different. Firstly, it doesn't exaggeratedly exoticise India and secondly, it tells many tales between its covers. As a multi–layered and multi–genre novel it has something for everybody – history, romance and mystery. The book is written from the standpoint of an author who wants to tell a story rather than make us admire his writing style. Lakshmi Raj Sharma's use of the exotic East is highly evocative and has an atmosphere steeped in dissolute Englishmen and women, Indian Maharajahs and their bijoux. What we miss is a bejewelled elephant but then you can't have everything! The tale is set in a milieu that seems quaint and dated today but retains its mesmerising quality. In an interview with this reviewer, Prof Sharma who teaches English at Allahabad University recounts that this book is the result of the stories that he heard in his childhood.

Set in the backdrop of pre–Independent India, this novel spans a gamut of emotions ranging from humour and irony to satire and suspense. The book explores the theme of love and devotion through the public and personal life of the foreign educated protagonist Sir Saraswati Chandra Ranbakshi. He is the trusted private secretary of Maharaja Neel Mani Singh and is privileged to be accepted by his British peers but is always aware of his colonial status. From the very beginning, Sharma maintains a humane interest in this man who displays great foresight as well as fortitude till the end. After a life of grandeur in Kashinagar, the Ranbakshi family finds it hard to come to terms with life in nondescript Mirzapur. The indomitable Sir Saraswati starts life afresh from scratch with the help of his shrewd brother Sir Durga. But circumstances once again force him to take up the administrative affairs of Kashinagar as the British Viceroy Lord Griffin–Tiffin eyes its annexation. Running parallel to this is the story of this docile, devoted wife Savitri and his three children, Maneka, Yogendra and Sita. Sir Saraswati instils into his three children the value of education which needs to be like the 'needle that passes through every kind of cloth without discriminating' (p 64). While his younger two children conform to his views, his eldest Maneka is the odd one out. With a mind of her own, she sets her own course in life. After a brief romance with the English way of life at the club and a failed affair with the District Collector Larry Stevens, she turns the table on him by tricking him into marriage with the modest Nimmi. Smarted but not broken, Maneka now manipulates and gets into wedlock with Mohan – a total stranger. Lakshmi Raj Sharma's writing style is restrained and nuanced where words are stitched together in an attractive garment of prose. Through a voyage of history, the narrative moves smoothly weaving a fabric of pure fiction. 

What is interesting is that the diverse and impressive characters grow and evolve on their own without the author being overtly judgemental. He lets their lives unfold through plain dialogue. Where his principal characters are concerned, Sharma paints them neither black nor white. The trajectory of their growth can be easily mapped. Maneka is a complex and interesting character. She changes from a difficult daughter to someone who falls in love, most inappropriately though, and faces her destiny with a lot of heroism. Sir Saraswati, famous for his diplomatic skills is introduced as a pucca angrez who admires everything British except their presence on Indian soil. As the novel progresses he transforms from a disciplinarian into a compassionate father and a nationalist who advocates Gandhian philosophy by the end of the novel. As a character remarks toward the novel's end, aptly capturing the theme of the novel, "The greatest of men have their weaknesses. You've only got to discover them, and then things get pretty simple" (p 317). The novel gives an insight into the social lives of the British in India. There is more than a hint of the white man's arrogance and his condescension to the native. The novel explores the effect of the English ways on an upper middle–class Indian family. Running away from English prudery, the Viceroy Lord Griffin–Tiffin and District Collector Larry Stephens want to lead a hedonistic life. They find India a kind of drug which satisfies all their needs but at the same time brings them to their knees. 

Against the political setting of the freedom struggle of India, there is the silent motherly sacrifice of Savitri, besides the docile domesticity of Sita and the rebelliousness of Maneka. Yogendra, the only son has lived too long under the shadow of his illustrious father to dare to marry his love Gauri who is a non–Brahmin. The plot thickens with Maneka being thwarted by Larry and her subsequent marriage to the sadistic Mohan. The story turns gothic with a mysterious dilapidated castle, talking ghosts, sounds of trinkets in a moonless night and vicious servants. Running parallel to the story is the wicked ambition of the Viceroy to annexe Kashinagar. This keeps Sir Saraswati entangled in the matters of the state and turns him oblivious to the psychological turmoil his children are going through. Finally he sets out to unravel the mystery of Mohan's murder at Nadir Palace. Though unintentional, the novel shows glimpses of magic realism with the opulence of the Maharajahs to the ghostly Nadir Palace. What seems magical to a western reader may appear realistic to the Indian eye.

The Tailor's Needle has a distinct Dickensian feel about it. The sub–plots of Maneka–Larry affair, Yogendra–Gauri love–story and Mohan's mysterious murder are what give the novel a multi–genre tag enhancing the dramatic aspect of narration. In the bargain it not only makes the book more readable but also sets it apart from the rest of the run–of–the–mill 'Raj' novels. With an array of finely etched recognisable characters and themes of crime, social class, empire and ambition, it reminds the reader of Bleak House and Great Expectations. On being asked about the influence of the great Victorian novelist on him, the author says, that the profundity of this is further strengthened through his recent article 'Charles Dickens and Me' published in the Oxford journal, English. One can feel a wry undercurrent of humour that runs through the novel imitating the comedy of manners. There is ample evidence of it in the portrayal of Sir Durga, his dwarfish son Shrimal and Mrs Joyce Muddleton. The humour springs from a detached sense of the absurd and has a freshness which is the contributing factor to the appeal of the novel. 

The narration revolves around the marriages of Maneka, Sita, Shrimal and Yogendra. The story is touching and the reader can identify with the travails of bringing up three teenage children with a dying wife. The love and devotion between Sir Saraswati and Savitri is heart–warming. At the end of the novel, Sharma extricates Sir Saraswati and exposes him to the contemporary world. Sir Saraswati's address to his guests assembled at Savitri's thirteenth day ceremony is a master stroke by the author where the protagonist silences all rumblings against inter–caste marriages, thereby echoing Gandhian philosophy – in a way killing two birds with a single stone. Sir Saraswati uses all his persuasive and rhetorical skills in convincing his sceptical relatives, in the bargain displaying his leadership qualities and a sense of nationalism. It is a story of the awkward adolescence and difficult relationships of not only Sir Saraswati's three children but also of a nation getting ready for its freedom. 

In short, Lakshmi Raj Sharma has crafted his novel very well. Weaving a web of stories through simple prose and rich ideas he manages to retain the reader's interest. The Tailor's Needle is like reading about a past one is unfamiliar with. It navigates spaces between memoirs and old life–stories.