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The second important female character in the novel is Shanta Bai. She is an anti-thesis of Savitri in almost everyway. Unlike Savitri, she has availed the benefit of modern education She is a graduate. She has an ambition of establishing an independent life on her own. She is married to her cousin who is a drunkard and gambler. She deserts him and her parents and receives education at Madras for the sake of setting up an independent career in the world. She is one who does not submit to the exigencies of life. She has no love for the comforts, security and warmth of homely life. Shanta Bai is a socially liberated woman in search of a self-dependent entity. After her graduation, she is driven from pillar to post in: search of a job. She works as teacher for sometime. She applies for the post of woman Insurance agent in Engladia Insurance Company at Malgudi away from her home town. Ramani, the Secretary of the company, feels drawn towards her as he is impressed by her beauty and her voice at the time of interview. She is appointed on the condition that she will have to give a business of ten thousand rupees in the first two months. In case she fails to do so, she will be dismissed and the next person will be appointed in her place. During the first two months, she will get a monthly stipend of sixty rupees. After the successful completion of thee probation-period, she will get a salary of one hundred and fifty rupees per month. The terms and conditions are not very satisfying to her. Ramani fears that she may reject the offer. He tries to persuade her by saying that he will get her salary enhanced later on. She accepts the offer and starts working in his office.
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| Shanta Bai |
Shanta Bai receives excessive attention from Ramani. Her appointment in the office creates different reactions in the mind of other male employees. A table, a chair and a separating screen are set up for her. Too much of fuss about her irritates Kateinger, the accountant who is all against the entry of a woman employee in the office. Pereira, the Manager does not feel upset over it. Rather he enjoys the discomfiture of Kateinger. Ramani gets a room vacated in the office for her stay. He brings a cot, a bench and some vessels for her from his own house. One night on his way back home from the club, he goes to his office on the pretext of checking up his papers and locks etc. He knocks at Shanta Bai's room in the passage. She receives him inside the room. During her first private meeting with him, she tells him the story of her past life. She is given to hysterical moods. Her moods change suddenly from hilarity to moroseness and irritability. She expresses pseudo-philosophical ideas about life such as "Living Today and Letting Tomorrow Take Cafe of, Itself, " or "the dead Yesterday and the unborn Tomorrow" or Omar Khayyam's philosophy of drinking the cup of life to its lees. She says that she is like a wind along the waste. Whenever she is in a mood of depression, she likes to play upon piano. The euphemistic sister-brother relationship between Shanta Bai and Ramani develops into amorous one. Like a temptress, she holds him completely under her spell.
Their love-making continues at the cost of normalcy of Savitri's family. Ramani takes her round the town in his car. They retire to the privacy of river Sarayu in the moonlit night. They visit a theatre but leave it before the film ends because Shanta Bai does not feel interested in the film. He does whatever she likes him to do. He stays away from his house with her throughout the night. This love association of the two breaks down the normalcy of Savitri's domestic life as she leaves her husband's home in protest against his persistent entanglement into the vicious snares of Shanta Bai. Moreover, this extra-marital relationship also exposes the double-facedness of Ramani's character. He is autocratic, tyrannical and self-willed as a husband on the one hand and submissive, cajoling, persuasive and self-effacing as a lover on the other.
The author perhaps wants to point out the danger latent in the rabid craze for woman's liberation through the moral down-fall of Shanta Bai. Away from the traditional barriers of husband's or parents home, she drifts into the blind alley of immoral conduct. The possible clash between the traditional and non-traditional styles of life is brought out through the anti-thetical characters of Savitri and Shanta Bai. The unorthodox new ways of Shanta Bai impinge hard upon the stability and calm normalcy of the traditional domestic life-style of Savitri and Ramani. A stormy commotion is created leading to the breakdown of family ties under the crippling jolt administered by the disruption of nuptial bond. The temporary dislocation thus caused passes away. Restoration is secured through reconciliation and resilience that Savitri learns after having gone through a series of experiences unknown to her so far. Savitri's character shows that one may not be able to change the things as they are but one can definitely manage to live by learning the art of making compromises and accommodation.