The Red Carpet: Bangalore Stories

by Lavanya Sankaran

Wry humor and a delicious grasp of the friction between generations in Bangalore are the hallmarks of Lavanya Sankaran’s fresh, deeply nuanced debut collection. “A potpourri of beggars and billionaires and determinedly laid-back ways,” Bangalore, India’s own Silicon Valley, is a crucible for prosperity, and at the chaotic crossroads between past and present. Here, American-trained professionals like Tara return to their old-fashioned families with heads full of Quentin Tarantino dialogue; a successful entrepreneur is shaken when his partner suddenly reneges on their plan to return to America; a traditional Indian mother slyly circumvents her Western-educated daughter’s resistance to marriage; a neighborhood gossip is determined to discover what goes on behind the closed curtains of the hip young couple across the street; a chauffeur must reconcile his more orthodox credos with his employer’s miniskirt lifestyle.

Witty, affectionate, and wonderfully wise, Lavanya Sankaran’s first collection attests to her remarkable literary talent.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, India, Indian Literature, Book Club, Asia, Travel

214 pages, Hardcover

First published April 26, 2005

About the author

Lavanya Sankaran is the author of the internationally acclaimed short story collection 'The Red Carpet', which spent two years on the best-seller lists.

Her debut novel 'The Hope Factory', hit the Number 1 spot on Amazon India and was also selected by Amazon UK as a Top Pick. Lavanya's writing is published in over 15 countries and has won several awards, including Barnes and Noble's Discover New Writers, and Poets and Writers' Best First Fiction Award. Her opinion pieces and fiction have appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian and The Atlantic, among others.

Lavanya sponsors the annual Lavanya Sankaran Fellowship for fiction writers at the Sangam Writers Residency. She is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College, and has lived between New York City and Bangalore, where she now lives with her husband and daughter.

Reviews

[Gorab · Rating 5 out of 5]

★★★★½
This is a collection of eight apt sized stories, neither too small, nor too big.
Just the right depth to bestow on you that warmth, as you sip that cup of hot filter coffee!

It's difficult to pick a favorite! Alphabet Soup, Mysore Coffee, the title story, Two Four Six Eight… and lo, I ended up picking half of the collection as favorite :)
If you've known the Bangalore of 90s, you'll get that nostalgia kicking with Closed Curtains located on Ulsoor Road.
Or if you've spent your life crisscrossing across India and US, you will have that belonging and empathy with characters from Biridie Num-Num, Apple Pie One by Two.

I have experienced neither of this, and still this lands straight to my favorites.
Looking forward to the full length novel - The Hope Factory.

[Pramod Biligiri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Debutant author Lavanya Sankaran provides many glimpses of life in Bangalore in this collection of short stories. The US also figures in a few of them through the presence of Non Resident Indian characters. Occasionally the stories fail to grip you or leave you wondering about the conclusion. But her prose itself is sufficiently beautiful that you will be none the worse for having read them.

The characters are mostly drawn from the middle/upper-middle classes - people who can afford a good private education, live with nannies and drivers, go for lunch at the club and move abroad to study. The two stories I enjoyed most both featured female protagonists. One of them was a girl looking back on her mischievous childhood run-ins with her nanny who isn’t entirely upright either; and the other had a grad student who is back in India on a working visit but finds herself pestered by her mother to present herself at parties and start thinking about marriage alliances. The author is in her elements when she describes the atmosphere in a convent school in Bangalore in the first one, and a perfectly decorated house overlooking Lavelle Road in the other. Also, while most of the stories are told competently from the point of view of a single main narrator, it’s in these two that human interactions and relationships come alive.

I do have a few quibbles. Often the plot got buried under elaborate descriptive paragraphs which did nothing to add to the whole, especially when the author stepped out of the above social world. For example, a second generation American-Indian humanities student is visiting her extended family in Malleswaram, Bangalore and that sets the stage for a cliched, lengthy description of a thread ceremony and discussions about Tambrahm culture. You could be excused for thinking this came out of some writing assignment. The title story (The Red Carpet) is told from the point of view of a driver to a rich, widowed(?) woman and encounters the same obstacle, even though it is otherwise brilliant in chronicling the driver’s thoughts and fears. There is also much description of hair, food and quite a few Ramu-s and Ashwini-s.

I should end by quoting a couple of my favourite passages from the book:

- “School was where we went to get a ‘convent education,’ which meant, as far as I could tell, learning mathematics, English, geography, history, science, Hindi, a choice of Sanskrit OR French OR Kannada, singing, painting, How to Be English, and How to Be Good. The last two items were not officially on the syllabus, but there was no mistaking their importance…” (and this continues on to some very witty stuff).

- “After a while he gave up trying to resolve the inherent contradiction in May-dum: that someone who made such an ideal employer—who, indeed, redefined his very notion of memsahibs—could also, simultaneously, present what he could characterize as nothing other than a Lax Moral Outlook. It wasn’t just her style of dressing: scanty outfits that revealed her arms, her midriff, her legs in fashions most suitable for a prostitute or a film star or a foreigner. It was also her style of speaking with her friends: curses, jokes, comments, and conversation of a frankness that, on the whole, made him grateful that he could barely follow the English they spoke.”

A very impressive debut. I’m looking forward to reading her full length novel “The Hope Factory” soon.

[Neha Gupta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bangalore.. a growing metropolitan city - already ahead of Chennai and Kolkata and now threatening the big cities of Mumbai and Delhi. It probably has its own history and past like all the others but the highlight of this city is not the rich Nawabi castles of the past, neither ancient temple heritage, nor British era monuments and architecture. The city is the symbol of the Rise of the Indian Middle Class.

Ordinary educated people working and earning a home and living for their families are the identity of this city and the nation. From being the country of ‘Snake Charmers’, ‘Royal Elephants’, ‘Taj Mahal’ we are now the offshoring hub for the global world. Past decade has seen an exponential rise of MNCs corporate set ups and advent of NRIs. The same guy who was exported with IIT/ IIM degree in the 90s to America is now imported back as a high profile Expat with a foreign stamp of approval and acceptance. The Prince of offshoring has taken the Middle class of Bangalore one notch higher to – Upper Middle Class.

So in this middle class city with middle class people living their middle class lives and discussing their middle class mentality – what can one expect. Anything, but mediocre. A city in its struggling stage only focuses on survival and support, but once it grows strong – it’s time to celebrate its achievements and that's what ‘The Red Carpet’ does. The city which was once trying to make its both ends meet has now opened its doors to art and culture. The new generation with working mothers, busy fathers in US shifts, brought up of by Ayahs, and American visas have decided to live their perfect American family life only closer to home.

The stories are very true to Bangalore city and its people. They are not extreme miseries or achievements, they are a piece of daily hopes and struggles. Each story explores a different genre from the same city. A young girl from a Convent school and her relationship with her Ayah (maid), retired father and mother living their lonely life away from their children settled abroad, young couples living an independent life financially and emotionally, reconciliation of the generation gap between traditional parents and modern kids, young engineers with their dilemma of arranged or love marriages, and many more. But I am allowed my favourites are ‘Two Four Six Eight’ and ‘Birdie Num Num’. They were most beautifully written. They were Short stories in a metaphor form. Accolades to Lavanya for writing a great collection of Short Stories for us and her muse – the Bangalore city.

To read more Book reviews and about Books, please visit my blog: Storywala

[Krishna Sruthi Srivalsan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book because I thought it was a set of stories set in Bangalore, a city where I spent one full year of my childhood, and hence it occupies a special place in my heart. I do return to Bangalore on and off, and I love the city. On that front, I was disappointed, because the city is merely a location in the book; I was somewhat expecting it to be more than that.

Like any short story collection, this one is a mixed bag. There were some stories that made me laugh, some that made me think, and some which can only be described as 'blah'. I liked 'Two, Four, Six, Eight', 'Mysore Coffee', and 'Apple Pie, One by Two' the best.

'Two, Four, Six, Eight' is told from the point of view of a young girl in a convent school and her villainous ayah . I loved the many references to the works of Enid Blyton in this tale. Having grown on a steady diet of the Famous Fives and Secret Sevens, I could totally relate to the protagonist.

'Mysore Coffee' is the dark story of Sita Ranganathan, who toys with the idea of suicide. 'Apple Pie, One by Two' revolves around two IT professionals, Swamy and Murthy, who have grown up together, went to the US together, returned home together. I liked the way 'Alphabet Soup' was written; there were parts of it which really made me giggle. (his daughter worked in a software company in the fabled Electronic City that had attached itself like a pimple to Bangalore's bum ) However, I found it difficult to believe that anyone, even an ABCD, could be so clueless about their own roots!

A minor quip- Out of the eight stories, I counted two Ramus, two Ashwinis, two Swamys, and two Murthys. I wonder why Sankaran couldn't have chosen different names for her characters? Oh well.

Go in for this one if you're looking for a quick read. Don't expect too much out of it.

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I almost didn't finish this book. Then I got to the title story, "The Red Carpet." After that, I enjoyed each story, with "Mysore Coffee" being the highlight: a touching, understated look at the legacy of suicide that reveals a surprising way the narrator learns how to cope--by learning how to bring herself out of the passivity that many Indians are culturally taught after viewing an incident in an American McDonald's. What I enjoyed about the latter stories was Sankaran's refusal to cater to Western ideas of what a story about India should be about. These aren't exoticized for the Westerner, instead, are realistic depictions of the changes India has gone through and is continuing to go through, and the confusion that some Indians experience as a result.

[Laavanya · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked up this book, mainly because of the similarity between the author's name and mine.

I like the idea of a collection of short stories about people in an Indian city. You strike a chord with many of the events and typical Indianisms, but the books fails to deliver memorable characters. The stories are more of mere observation rather than insightful stories. The characters are typical and although a story about daily lives could be written well, this wasn't.
It seemed like she was trying to capture the essence of Bangalore in a multitude of snippets, but sadly, the book doesn't offer much in terms of plot and characters.
The authour's writing is very good though.

On the whole, I won't forget it, if only for the name. :D

[Luvena · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very enjoyable set of stories all connected to Bangalore - the life, its people and its characteristic isms. Every story had a story within itself, an undertone of sorts, that I brought me a sense of kinship and knowing of the characters. I felt a resonance and knowing beyond what met the eye. These are stories of life and people of my city... And I enjoyed the reflections thoroughly. I'm glad I took my time savouring these gems.

[Susmita Bhattacharya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed these short stories... glimpses into people's lives and into Bangalore,a city I don't know much about.

[Jawahar Surti · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

Loved most of the stories. Except the first one - Bombay This.

The stories are kind of slices of the whole. Beautifully told. Excellent narration. The author transports you into the world of the characters.

Closed Curtains, Alphabet Soup, Mysore Coffee were the ones I liked the most. Some characters appear in 2 or more stories - that's something I liked. Hence my comment "slices of the whole". The stories are not too short nor are they too long.

A talented writer...

[Ajay · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the first four stories of the collection are much better than the last four, all of them are well-written and provide a keen observational eye into the (mostly well-off) lives of their protagonists.

[Srav]

This was my 5th book out of 21 in 2021.

So, the reason I chose not to give the author any rating and why I want to write this review is so I can do justice to the book. The copy I bought is not printed correctly, and I'm not sure if the stories end as horribly abrupt as they do or if it's a misprint. I read around 2 of the short stories which are why I still opted to put that I read this book because I put in the time and effort to mark the book and read it for what it's worth but by God, the story is so drab. I just didn't really feel compelled and in fact, I was so confused. I really was pulled into the first page of the first story but after a while, I was thinking "why is every man in this story so utterly crass?" I was thrown off by inner dialogues like "I wanted to taste the sweat on the upper lips of the wives of my friends" and more sexual fantasies about housewives that apparently indicated "that it was time to get married." Like, no? Get a sex doll if you're that concerned about being with a housewife, not a living breathing woman.

I hope by this point, whoever is reading this review, can understand why I am not rating this book because I have no words after reading it. It's just not what I was expecting would be accepted for publishing. Maybe I'm not the target audience for this book, but then again, I don't know who is.

[Manu · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Red Carpet is a collection of short stories – eight of them, a slice of life of a generation in transit, with its amazing contradictions, all set in Bangalore. Though the different stories are not connected with each other, the characters in most of them (if not all) are recurrent, though not in an obvious way, and usually remain inconspicuous in the stories where they are not the lead characters. Many of the stories feature characters who differ vastly from each other- either by age, or social class, or mindset, but who, despite these contrasts, are still able to connect at some point. Bangalore offers a perfect setting, since it’s a city that has absolutely transformed itself in a short of period of time. But its not exactly a key character in any of the stories, merely serves as a backdrop. Also, don’t expect any Archer like twists in any of the stories. They just flow, and are reasonably good reads. Meanwhile, I’m extremely curious to figure out if the story after which the book is titled (The Red Carpet) has more of the author in itself compared to the others. My favourite happens to be 'Mysore Coffee'.

[Jaya Viswanathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5
This short story collection delivered exactly what I was looking for, an insight into the transitioning society in India, especially in bigger cities. I fully enjoyed some of these stories, including closed curtains, two four six eight, and Mysore coffee. I liked that there was a lack of judgement towards characters on the opposite ends of spectrums in many of the stories. Many of the other stories however were not enough - they left me feeling like there was a lack of depth, or something, a critical element, was missing. Sometimes it was as simple as getting to the end of the story and realizing there was no substance to it. Another weird aspect of this book were the repeat characters - it's like the author wouldn't commit to it. Some stories had overlapping characters while others didn't. I'd rather have all interconnected stories or none. Overall, I would recommend this as a good read while waiting in the airport or something.

[Deepak · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would probably have enjoyed reading this book much more in the year 2005 when it was published as now it read more like an old wives' tale. There was nothing new, no freshness in the writing, characters or the plots. It was all about stereotyped characters in stereotyped situations doing the stereotyped things that was expected of them. Everything was predictable. It felt like eavesdropping on old ladies in Bangalore sitting on the verandah exchanging gossip about their heydays.
On the positive side it did take me down memory lane to times when I used to visit friends in Bangalore and go gallivanting on Brigade Road in the early 80s when Bangalore was always fresh and happening!
So if you want to know what Bangalore was like in the early 2000s or late 1990s do pick up this book. You will love it! But if you have been there done that then forget it.

[Manish · Rating 2 out of 5]

"The Red Carpet" is nothing more than a collection of average stories set in Bangalore. An Indian American teenager who comes to India expecting an egalitarian society only to be surprised by the Iyer-Iyengar rivalries, an aging neighbour's voyeuristic analysis of the generation gap, the software industry and a few others exploring the party circuit make up the collection. Except for the story "Mysore coffee" which analyses depression and suicide, this is one forgettable collection.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very nice collection of stories,very well written and so real..it has a good humour quotient which I really liked.All stories have a backdrop of Bangalore city
My favorite is 'Closed curtains'-an old man's hope of finding his son in his neighbour.I liked 'the red carpet' too-a touching story.
Trying to see if Lavanya has written more books..Would love to read them!

[Nathalie Larsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed these short stories more than I thought I would - but I would have loved them ties together a little better, and admittedly I found it difficult to relate. Also some of them lacked resolution for my taste.

[Abhaga · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved two of the stories - "Closed Curtains" and "Two Four Six Eight". Others are also pretty tight. If you have anything to do with Bangalore, this one is a good pick.

[Sireesha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Riveting stories. Really good ones.

[Aruna Kumar Gadepalli · Rating 2 out of 5]

Easy and quick read. The stories depict the day to day lives one comes across in real Iife.

[Atula Kapoor · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Red Carpet is the best story in this book. A positive book! Loved the author's take on life.

[Pavithra Muthalagan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very tasty!

[Amir · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fun and joyful compilation of short stories that mostly center in Bangalore, India. Lavanya Sankaran has a wry sense of humor and a discerning eye for detail and emotional conflict.

The stories are idiosyncratic to the Indian and US immigrant Indian experience, and yet they touch on many universal themes. As a vociferous reader of American Jewish literature, I was immediately struck by many parallel themes and the book reminded me of Philip Roth's 1959 collection of short stories that launched him into stardom, Goodbye, Columbus; as well as a more contemporary collection by various authors called Lost Tribe: Jewish Fiction from the Edge which helped launch Nathan Englander, Gary Steyngart, and Dara Horn in the early aughts.

Here are some themes/and joint characteristics of the Jewish immigrant experience and the Indian immigrant experience:

* Parents who obsess about their children's academic and material successes, and like to talk about them incessantly with the neighbors and competing relatives;
* The narcissism of small differences, between for example different types of Brahmins who like to judge other Brahmins
* The conflict between sticking with Tradition (tradition!) and new modern mores
* Class differences and their impacts on outlooks
* The feeling like an "Indian" when in America, but an "American or an ABCD" when in India

I enjoyed all of the stories, but my favorite was probably Alphabet Soup. In Alphabet Soup, Priyamvada is a woke, vegan college student who enjoys the material lifestyle that her hardworking, successful immigrant parents are able to provide her without fully appreciating that it is their striving that allows her the freedom to judge materialism, the American dream, and their work ethic in a negative light while embracing the victim mentality pushed in liberal limousine elite colleges. She goes to India in search of a simpler, more meaningful life and finds that its more rigid, traditional and hierarchical structure would make it difficult for her to truly find happiness and perhaps even limit her potential. Through her time on the ground in Bangalore she comes to appreciate why her parents sought out opportunity in America and that they are so willing to allow her to make her own choices and find her own way.

Each of the stories has moments of light humor and deep meaning that explore dialectics in modernity. Highly recommend.

[Subhayan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of stories set in modern Bangalore, exploring the challenges, backgrounds and foibles of its residents. In these stories the urban, conflicted, young and old, poor and (mostly) rich, jostle for breath in this city which constantly vacillates between Malleshwaram and Lavelle Road, Yeshwanthpur and Electronic City. Loved it!

[Meera corera · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was initially put off by the casual needless splashing of swear words and then came the red carpet story. After that every single one of them was great... loved the etched out characters their conundrums, the elaborate yet precise detailing of the state of mind... a great read.

[Shiner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed. The writing style doesn’t differ much between stories, but the characters are real. Loved how some characters floated between stories. Focused on the changes occurring in India, as well as the effect of the Indian diaspora on those living that experience.

[Pam Hurd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read. Worth your time.

[Lavanya · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wanted to like this book, since it is about Bangalore and seemed like it would be relatable. But the characters were shallow, and none of the stories I read were engaging.

[Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eight intimate stories that show the tension between modern and traditional ways of life in Bangalore.

My favorite is "Mysore Coffee".

[Arti · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have just finished reading The Red Carpet, a collection of eight short stories by Lavanya Sankaran. All of them are set in Bangalore.

In the first story, Bombay this, Ramu, the hero, has a set of friends, thinks of getting married and settling down. Closed Curtains is about helpful Mr D’Costa, who keeps an eye on his neighbor, Mrs Kapur and helps her in the time of need. Two four six eight is about a young girl, whose maid makes her feel guilty in front of her mother for things that she had not done till she stands up to it one day. The Red Carpet is about the different lives of a young man, Raju, who works as a driver and the rich Mrs Choudhary, his may-dum. Alphabet Soup is about Priyamvada, a girl brought up in America, by her Indian parents, who decides to come to India and find more about India because she wants to be a brown in a brown country. Mysore Coffee is about a young hard working accountant, Sita, who lives with her mother and makes an American friend, Christie, in the course of her work, with whom she shares her life’s secrets. Birdie Num-Num is about 27 year old Tara, who comes back from US to finish her PhD thesis and her mother, wants her to get married. Apple Pie, One by Two is about two friends, Swamy and Murthy, who go to America and come back start their own company.

Overall a good book but every story ends abruptly leaving the reader waiting for more.