Dev, an Indian living in America, wakes up ahead of his alarm with his wife sleeping beside him. He realizes that he did not set his usual alarm last night because yesterday he had been fired from his job. He used to work in a software company called Techware Solutions. The company was not doing well for a long time. The rumors of a massive lay-off were floating around the organization. However, Dev was confident that being a senior employee at the company for more than five years, he would not lose his job. He was laid off along with a dozen more employees.
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Salt and Saffron by Kamila Shamsie, Summary and Analysis
Dev is guilty of losing his job. He feels that he is fired because of his weaknesses and bad performances. His fellow employee, Bob Wilson, on the contrary, thinks otherwise. Bob Wilson, who is also a victim of the lay-off, blames the company for this failure. He believes that he had always worked hard for the company and it was the fault of the leadership. Dev agrees with him but he has accepted his fate. Bob Wilson has not.
Dev reads a piece of news while
searching for a job in the newspaper, about a disturbing occurrence at Techware
solutions. He comes to know that his friend Bob Wilson has been arrested by a
SWAT team for publicly displaying his anger with insults and threats at the
company’s building. Concerned for his ex-colleague, Dev calls Bob’s girlfriend
who carelessly tells him that Bob’s parents are bailing him out.
Dev is worried about his friend
and his wife, Rashmi, is worried about Dev. When Rashmi leaves for work, Dev
spends time watching TV and updating his resume. Then, he decides to write a
letter to his little niece. When the letter is written, he finds it dull and
decides to paint the scene he has mentioned in the letter. On an impulse, he
goes to market and buys material for painting. He becomes so absorbed in his
project that he forgets to have his lunch. Thus, from that day onwards, Dev
starts painting, along with a job search. He learns different tricks and
techniques and also starts taking art classes. After six months, one of his
neighbors offers to buy one of his paintings. But Dev later comes to know that
selling paintings is never enough, and almost all artists do painting as a side
job. After Bob returns from jail, Dev meets him and finds him very depressed.
He tries to cheer him up but it was no good.
One day, Dev sees on TV that Bob
has barricaded himself inside the company building. He has all kinds of guns,
and he is shooting at everything and everyone in sight. People get trapped in
the building. Dev believes that Bob wants to get killed. He continues to watch
the news with thoughts that whether Bob would listen to him to stop or not. The
SWAT team enters the building amid tear gas, and shots are fired from inside.
The action on his TV seems filmy to Dev. Eventually, he switches off the TV,
knowing the tragic end of the whole drama.
He takes out fresh paper and
paint and starts painting a flower. He paints a single rose that would never
die.
This article is written by Saba Alam, one of the contributors at the SOL Community.
