The World of Malgudi

The contents of this collection runs as

• Mr. Sampath, the printer of Malgudi whose experience seemed to stem from printing and branch off to several others including producing a film. The novel is narrated from the perspective of Srinivas, thriving to run a magazine of his own and for which he seeks the help of Sampath. Though they start of well with Sampath smoothening all the initial glitches, but finally their way seemed to meander off to the project of a film making of which Sampath shows the most enthusiasm. Srinivas is selected as the scriptwriter who, in turn, coaxes Sampath to include his neighbour Ravi in the art department whose passion of art is discovered by Srinivas as was his passion for the heroine of the film. As the film seemed to progress, pushing into oblivion Srinivas's dream of his paper, a sudden turn of events again turned the course right but for the cost of the film and the relation between Sampath and Srinivas. The ways of R.K. Narayan as he narrates the incident is again fabulous and you cannot but feel for the wretched Sampath and also the dreamer Srinivas.
• The Financial Expert seems to be the most hilarious, or more correctly humorous piece where Margayya, the pseudo banker to the villagers turned a loan shark brings up his family through a journey of affection, lies, greed and jealousy. A life full of ups and downs that takes him out of Malgudi to Madras (for a change in Malgudi novels) and back, Margayya had to wait for the climactic end at a very later stage of life where his optimism ultimately promises a secured life for the family.
• The Painter of Signs is the story of Raman, the signboard painter and his love affair with a social worker Daisy bent on checking the population explosion through strict family planning. She seeks help of Raman for her campaign for which Raman delivers several wall arts publicizing family planning. But this also transforms Raman, who enjoyed the fun of singleness to a person who craves for a wife and a family. The transformation sometimes reaches the boundary of decency but ultimately his wooing softens Daisy for a while. But Daisy's devotion to work, her troubled background and a breach in understanding with Raman seems to prevent a normal relationship to grow and the loneliness that engulfs Raman transpires to the reader eventually. The climax of the story is left for the reader but Narayn again excells himself in simplifying the complex relation of love and hate.
• A Tiger for Malgudi is the revelation of Narayan's excellence where the psychology of a tiger is wonderfully expressed by, no doubt, in depth research and power of imagination which resulted in this biography of Raja, the tiger who journeys from the Mempi hills to a circus, then accompanies a hermit after a short visit to the city and then retires at a zoo in the company of a sympathetic master. Typically an autobiographical approach, but the novel uses perspectives of a third person sometimes for easier understanding, this novel is a memorable contrast to the Malgudi life and as the author exclaimed in the introduction, is a tribute to the wild.