A word about RK Narayan

RK Narayan, was born in 1906 in Madras. He graduated from Maharaja’s College Mysore (My wife is a product of Maharani’s college Mysore so she was thrilled to hear this.)   

His first novel Swami and Friends came out in 1935 at the age of 29. From there started the legend of Malgudi. A city was born. So was a great writer in the making.

He has published numerous novels, five collections of short stories, two travel books, four collections of essays, a memoir and some translations of Indian epics and myths. He preferred the short story to the novel as he says, “The short story affords a writer a welcome diversion from hard work.” While writing a novel he says, “….I feel restless and uneasy at being shackled to a single task for months on end.”

If one says that he is one of the best Indian writers in English, it will be no exaggeration. He has an equally illustrious and famous brother, RK Laxman the cartoonist.

Malgudi Days

Malgudi Days is a collection of 32 short stories taken from two collections of his “An Astrologer’s Days” (16 stories), “Lawley Road” (8 stories) and eight new stories. Though they are unrelatedand independent short stories, they are blended together through Malgudi.

The characters in the stories are simple city folk whom you come across everyday in reallife. There are no super heroes or villains. No kings and king makers. No beautiful damsels in distress. Yet, the characters are very live and make the reader aware of their presence. Who would think of writing about “ ….one of those commonplace dogs one sees everywhere – colour of white and dust, tail mutilated at a young age…..bred on leavings and garbage of the marketplace…. ” or about Kannan who “ … sat at the door of his hut and watched the village go its way. Sami the oil-monger… coming up the street driving his ox before him….. ” This is RK Narayan for you. Simple stories about simple folk. It shows how closely he has observed life. He has not missed anything. Nothing is too small or too insignificant for him to write about. He breathes life into all the characters he handles making them living entities.

His stories are simple and short where the central character faces some kind of crisis in life and either resolves it or lives with it.   He meant his stories to be “ ….. in tune completely with the truth of life, truth as I perceive it…. ” The reader may read a lot into the stories depending on his experiences in life.

Where is Malgudi

Although Malgudi was created out of RK Narayan’s imagination, it is very live and a vibrant city.   Everything is there. The little Post Office, the grocery shop, the Town Hall Park, the vendor of fried groundnuts, the astrologer with his cowrie shells and paraphernalia, the Vinayak Mudali Street with four parallel streets, Thanappa the Postman on his bicycle pedaling furiously down one of the streets, City X Ray Institure at Race Course Road etc etc.       You name it and it is there. It is a full fledged city which you can picturise as though you are being driven through its streets as you read through the stories.

The city has its permanent inhabitants who move through the stories as though the events were happening in a real city having real living people. After having read only a few of his books it is difficult to shake off the feeling that you have lived in this town.

Malgudi could be anywhere. It has no geographical limitations. You walk down the street in your city and it is as good as walking down Malgudi. You will find most of the characters who inhabit Malgudi present in your city too. Malgudi is depicted in the 1930s India when modern day developments had not taken place.   If RK Narayan were to write some new stories depicting the present day world, probably Malgudi would have developed into a modern city with the neon lights, flashing banners, multi storied buildings etc.

INTRODUCTION

If I were to ask you whether you have read any work of Rasipuram Krishnaswami Ayyar Naranayanaswami, you would say “who is that?”

I too was wonderstruck when a friend asked me this question. When I said, “I have never heard of this name,” he handed me the “Malgudi Days” by RK Narayan. I said “Oh RK Narayan! Yes of course I have seen the serial on Doordarshan.”   He said “Yes. RK Narayan is the short name of Rasipuram Krishnaswami Ayyar Naranayanaswami. Do you know this abridged name was suggested by Graham Greene when he was getting ‘Swam and Friends’ published. Read this book. I am sure you will enjoy it and fall in love with Malgudi”

There began my journey into the Malgudi world and I really felt at home there.