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Happy birthday R K Narayan: Do you have these 5 best-sellers in your reading list?
On his 108th birth anniversary, we revisit the timeless works of RK Narayan and that timeless place called Malgudi. We can find something of us in little boys and their friends, snake charmers and sweet vendors, astrologers and guides who inhabit this town.
VS Naipaul, in his characteristic style, said RK Narayan was involved with "the lesser life that goes on below: small men, small schemes, big talk, limited means." This would be a rather apt description of Malgudi and its ethos -- that fictional south Indian town which stood for all of India and where pre- and post-partition ethos fused seamlessly.
This town is inhabited by rather memorable characters – little boys and their friends, snake charmers and sweet vendors, even astrologers and guides. Every single one of them is a fully developed character, painting a larger than life world as they go about their ordinary lives.
Narayan, best described as the Indian Chehov, was often asked where Malgudi was? "Malgudi is where we all belong, and where we wish we lived," he would say every time.
There you have it – a delicious mix of dreams and reality, what we have and what we want.
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Presented here are five books by Narayan which catch India in all its vivid colour and find depth where others will see none.
The Guide
A still from Guide (movie).
The book’s protagonist Raju can be variously described as a guide, an adulterer, a criminal, a man blinded by jealousy, an ascetic and a martyr. Raju is a guide who is happily living with Rosie, a dancer, before his possessive nature overpowers him and he commits a crime.Once out of the jail, he cuts all ties with the past and finds refuge in an old temple. Here, the villagers take him for a sanyasi and Raju lives as an ascetic. His true test of faith is when the village is struck by a drought and he is forced to fast for 12 days to summon the rains.
Swami and Friends
One of the sketches of Malgudi.
This is where we meet Swami and his friends. Set in a pre-partition village in south India, it tells the story of a young boy and his day-to-day victories and travails. Narayan effortlessly captures adolescence as Swami in all his innocence goes about his daily life, facing his headmaster and finding time to play with his friend, Rajam. This beautiful portrayal of love, jealousy, grief and innocence is relevant decades after it was first written.
The Bachelor of Arts
Maybe a precursor to The Guide, The Bachelor of Arts presents us with a hero who is flawed. Chandran, the graduate in question, is a telling comment on the youth of the time as well as iron claws of traditions in which the society was bound.
Infatuated by a 15-year-old, Chandran leaves his home to become a sanyasi after it is found that he cannot marry her because of an astrological flaw in his horoscope. He soon gets bored with the lifestyle and returns home. He also agrees to marriage, as long as the girl is very beautiful.
Waiting for the Mahatma
Mahatma Gandhi is visiting Malgudi and the sleepy town is caught in a wave of nationalism. Sriram, a 20-year-old youth, has meanwhile found love. With Indian freedom struggle as the backdrop, Sriram and Bharati – the girl of his dreams – find their own path. Sriram stumbles and falls because he fails to grasp the Mahatma’s message in its entirety.
The Vendor of Sweets
East vs West, generation gap and Gandhian teachings in face of a changing world – Narayan deals with all these threads in this novel about a father and son. Jagan, with his half-baked Gandhian beliefs, is shocked when his son Mali returns from America with his westernized beliefs. The snuing confrontation changes them both.
