The World of Nagaraj

Nagaraj belonged to the elite Kabir street family and so didn’t have to care for a living. Infact he didn’t have a care in the world except writing his masterpiece on Narada. But life was soon to change when Tim, his nephew came to live with him forever. Social confusions seem to get in his way but his meek nature prevented to find a solution and so he remained only the silent spectator to the drama of life that revolved around him. Contrary to his ways of life, his wife though doted on the nephew but wished to be strict. But her wise means were easily foiled by her husband who had proper sense but lacked the courage to use it. To make matters worse sometimes the stubborn brother visited him and made his life even more miserable. Then came the daughter-in-law with her harmonium that seemed to create enough noise for Nagaraj to change his daily routine. There are also a few more characters of varied prominence including the Talkative Man who really breathed more fun to the already humourous mood of the narrative. But amidst all the chaos the focus to write about the great sage never became blurred and he tried every avenue to write his manuscript on Narada who was his idol. The entire pace of the story is perfect throughout but for the closing chapter that seemed a bit abrupt. The humorous perspective is most prominent but it adds a bit of sober romance that heightens its appeal more.

Waiting for the Mahatma

This is one of those stories that started in the expected pace, grew rather boring slowly, seemed losing focus sometimes, but as it neared the finale the grand author again excelled himself. Never had been a fiction more wonderfully blended with the truth.

Sriram was a person yards away from politics yet a curious turn of events converted him to the path of freedom fighters. Was it the presence of Mahatma or was it due to his amorous feelings for Bharati that stimulated the inherent patriot in him might never be understood but the adventures of a confused man is sure to be enjoyed. Several times the protagonist has travelled outside Malgudi but that doesn't prevented another outstanding story to unfold. Mixing humour with sadness as the pages are turned the narrative revels in the spirit of optimism.

The Dark Room

As the back cover so succinctly puts it, the poignant tale of the housewife tormented by the indifferent husband could not have been better told. The pathos of an Indian lady, single-handedly caring for the house and its inhabitants with a husband who feels that being the earning member justifies in his every action, is etched in a steady pace along the chapters. With his characteristic humour and the keen eye to the social structure, Narayan seems to excel himself in this anecdote as he brings out the reality with which the opposite sex is so often treated so easily. Mothering three children and keeping a sound belief in her husband, the lady of the house is stunned when she finds herself betrayed of her faith. As frustration piles up, she is forced to leave the house but the love and affection for her children seemed to get the better of her. The author sketches the sorrow of the housewife and the hollow pride of the upper caste and highlights it by the stark contrast of the lower strata of the society that reveals a more human nature. The tale is another reminiscent of the day to day events that is pictured perfectly with the realistic touch.

Grandmother's Tale

The story of Grandmother's Tale, as explained in the foreward, is the borderline between fiction and biography. The novelella is about Narayan's great-grandmother Bala and her search for her errant husband Viswa who left apparently on a pilgrimage soon after their marriage at a very ripe age, as was the custom at those times. Unable to bear the burden of whispering neighbours and determined to find the husband who deserted her without any strong reason, Bala went forward all alone, emboldened only by her strong will to reconcile with Viswa. What happened next was an amazing tell of courage masked by Narayan's signature comic style as related to him by Ammani - his grandmother whose memory tried to bring back almost everything but the trifling details that makes the narrative lacking in justification at certain parts but enhances the charm in no little way and can be considered as 'grandmotheretic' (it rhymes with the word 'poetic' and I think it carries the meaning I want to emphasize) justice which every Indian is well aware of. To the fans of Narayan's works this will augment the appeal like always but the added attraction is R.K. Laxman's illustrations that again makes this priceless.

The Guide

The Guide is the transformation of a corrupt and opportunist tour guide to a spiritual being. Starting his career without a heed to his father's business he gradually made a profit out of guiding excursionists to spots hitherto never hailed at all a place of sight seeing. Transforming places with only a trace of sceninc beauty just by the virtue of his story telling Raju had earned a regional fame around Malgudy. But unbeknownst to him, the Mempi Hills did really had a treasure of significant archaeology. Thus came Marco to explore the caves and with him came Rosie, his artist - the dancer of the Bharatnatyam genre. But it was not her dance that attracted Raju to her but something else made him lose his head completely. Then started the story of careful elopement that culminated in Marco and Rosie getting estranged. Raju, taking advantage of the situation gave Rosie a house but more importantly introduced her to the world of commerce. Rosie's dance, enthralling her audience wherever she went, soon catapulted them to a world of fame but not long before that Raju found himself thrown to jail due to a financial deal gone messy chiefly due to his ignorance in the legal and financial matters. But as he came out of jail, opportunities provided a remarkable transformation in him that, to me seemed to give him eternal peace.

An engrossing narrative that modifies the outlook of the reader as each page unfolds a new surprise this will hold you glued as long as it remains unfinished.

The English Teacher

A tragedy like never before, Narayan unfolds love, life and death in the last of his trilogy that started with Swami, continued with the BA graduate and culminated in The English Teacher, a remarkable adventure reflecting the social evolution of man. Dedicated to his wife, Rajam, the novel is emotional and enchanting as it speaks of the inner self and philosophises on the afterlife but remains so much rational. Pain and bereavement have been etched out in its pages but never for once they seek sympathy but remains calm and composed in its flowing narration. The simple joys of the simple people and life's own surprises and griefs had been compiled in this beatifully versed literary creation that will remain a classic for ages to come. The only thing that remains a mystery, rather a query to me, is whether the great Ray had ever come across Narayan's works and considered it to make it a film as only a great director like him could have made a visual masterpiece of the story.

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.

Malgudi Days

The last collection of Narayan’s that I went through contained a number of short stories and I found to my delight that these too are treasures of a different kind penned by the creator of Malgudi novels. So this time I researched a bit on the short stories and bought Malgudi Days that contains stories from An Astrologer’s Day, Lawley Road and some other stories. I’m not sure whether the volume contained all from An Astrologer’s Day and Lawley Road but this seemed to be the best collection that I could find in the lot that was optimised both in content and price.

The entire content runs as

From An Astrologer’s Day

· An Astrologer’s Day

· The Missing Mail

· The Doctor’s Word

· Gateman’s Gift

· The Blind Dog

· Fellow-Feeling

· The Tiger’s Claw

· Iswaran

· Such Perfection

· Father’s Help

· The Snake-Song

· Engine Trouble

· Forty-Five a Month

· Out of Business

· Attila

· The Axe

From Lawley Road

· Lawley Road

· Trail of the Green Blazer

· The Martyr’s Corner

· Wife’s Holiday

· A Shadow

· A Willing Slave

· Leela’s Friend

· Mother and Son

New Stories

· Naga

· Selvi

· Second Opinion

· Cat Within

· The Edge

· God and the Cobbler

· Hungry Child

· Emden

After going thru the short introduction by the author, I scurried past the opening story that I’d earlier read to the next ones that took me on a fascinating tour of human nature, be it a postman’s prudence while delivering mails, the human psychology that sometimes plays as an effective placebo to incurable illness, the insecurity of an illiterate pensioner, the blind faith of a dog to the cruellest of masters and confidence trick that sometimes act as the guard against the mightier. Tragedy, not a very common in Narayan’s arts, is also depicted equally well in at least two of the narratives, one portraying the rash act of a student whose sudden success after constant failure hurls him headlong to a way of life that he finds hard to deal with and in the other he sketches the life of a gardener and his feeling towards the garden he fashioned that is awaiting an impending destruction. The author has also narrated the way of Providence that saves mankind in ways curious to the mortals. Swami also pops up in one of the narratives where his innocent view of life and school seems so much similar to our younger days. In the way of these narratives we meet my favourite, the Talkative Man, more than once, sometimes rambling on his close encounter with a man-eater, sometimes recounting his curious adventure as a trainee in flute playing, sometimes with his ill fortune over an unique prize. The author also does not forget the ordinary men and their striving for a decent living that exploits their soul and strains relations. But the silver linings in some also shows how misery is erased and hope regained.Narayan's comic genius also come to the fore when he describes the dumb behaviour of a dog that changes its status from a zero to a hero.
The second of the collection also starts with a story that I'd already come across and this collection seems to be my favourite maybe due to the humorous sides that highlight much of the narratives. Though full of pathos, the first few stories stories ramble past a thief whose sudden flash of kindness is returned very severely, a vendor of sweets reduced to a hotel attendant, the gambler with a disastrous luck, and in all of these, the humorous side seems to brush aside the austere events. But the later ones seem directed towards the harsher side of the coin where a child's craving for his dead father's company in the movie that he acted is weighed against his mother's wish to stay away from the same, the caring habit of a governess being exploited by all, the indifference of the master of the house towards a servant who was once a thief and the eternal relation of love and hate that cycles in families. I don't know whether it is the printer's mistake in quoting Mysore for Malgudi but there was an instance that I found Narayan's story to meander off outside Malgudi into the real world.
The first two and one coming a little late in the list of anecdotes of the final collection were already known to me and was thus given a fleeting glimpse but I was stuck in one of the next stories where the value of a second opinion seemed to be too much lengthened for its worth and for the first time I was disappointed in Narayan. But again enthusiasm was regained in the funny incidents of an excorsist's hoax, the remarkable rationale of a poor cobbler, a curious tour of a heartbroken lover and a lost child in a fair ground and the octogenarian whose ruthless activities in youthful times earned him the same name of a German battleship Emden but who had been reduced to just the opposite in later years.
The book also presents a glossary for regional terms that Narayan has used in each and every of his writings and may be helpful for any Narayan story.
This Indian Thought Publication has no doubt brought Narayan stories to customers at a reasonable price and that they were really thinking hard while designing the book is apparent from the finishing and my thanks to them for this great endeavour. The collection remains one of the closest to heart for Narayan's fans and may be valued as a priceless item to many.

A Town Called Malgudi

This was my second purchase along with ‘The Last Don’, made on a discount coupon that I’d received from the last book fair and though this was a hurried choice but there is not the remotest chance of repentance on the outcome.
When I’d first read R.K. Narayan, I was fascinated by his style and after reading the first novel in this book, The Man-Eater of Malgudi, i just fell in love with his works. He seemed to be in elements while writing his 9th novel in 1961, 26 years after he entertained his readers with the wonderful ‘Swami and Friends’ His wry sense of humour blended magnificently with the day to day events that he narrated in his own style to weave the plot that at one hand consisted of mystery and on the other hand the constraints in life that an apparently meek and contented man faces that he justifies in his own way. The story starts with the printer Nataraj, a good human being, persuaded by a compelling taxidermist, Vasu, to let his attic for his personal use wihtout caring to pay any rent for that. This doesn’t worry Nataraj but the increasing number of stuffed animals in the attic annoys him and his printing assistant Sastri but both fears the bullying Vasu to order to vacate his residence. Vasu, described as a good marksman and an obsessed taxidermist, often visited the nearby Mempi forest and without a licence, used to shoot animals without paying heed to the forest department and brought back the dead animals for his trade. His obsession ultimately drove him to target Kumar, a temple elephant, which seemed to strike protest from certain people and ultimately on the day following the one he was to shoot the animal, Vasu was found dead in his room. Mystery shrouded as to the cause of the death and a singular and symbolic solution was offered by the author though no clear evidence was ever brought forward.
The second is a novella Talkative Man where we are introduced to Madhu, the talkative man of Malgudi whose incessant talk earned him the name. He, being a freelance journalist, seemed to roam everywhere around Malgudi and each day saw him despatching his reports in the mail van. Thus it was obvious that a new entry in the town of Malgudi would not pass unnoticed by him. In this way he met Dr. Rann, that was what he called himself, in his three piece suit who proclaimed himself to be coming from Timbuctoo and would like to stay at Malgudi to continue his work on ‘futurology’, an United Nations project. Well, everybody seem to buy this, even TM (affectionate abbreviation for Talkative Man in Malgudi) and this resulted in TM writing an article on Dr. Rann which the editors in town seemed to like and published it complete with Rann’s photograph. This resulted in the visit of a lady from Delhi who confided in TM that she was the wife of Rann alias Rangan who was far from being a researcher but a lecherous womanizer. TM took the matter lightly and for the time being shielded Rann from the woman and managed to send the later to Delhi thus helping Rann to evade her. But soon it seemed what the woman had told was true as Rann seemed to form a bondage with the naive granddaughter of the good old librarian of the Lawley Memorial Library and Reading Room. This disturbed TM and he soon set pace to a series of events to save the young woman from disrespect. The story also gathered a brisk pace from this point onwards, so unlike Narayan narratives but as a whole the culmination was again correctly Narayan style. It may be mentioned that Nataraj of the 1st novel also plays a very small role in this narrative that started as a novel but thanks to Narayan who never paid heed to the publisher’s demand of more words and stopped where it needed to be stopped in the signature style!
The book also contains several of author’s short stories where we discover a different Narayan. In Astrologer’s Day the single eventful day of the astrologer revealed not only his secret past but may also represent several of the men in the trade and shows us the extent to which imagination can extend so as to pen such a classic narrative. The next story Lawley Road once again brings the Talkative Man who narrates a humorous series of event following the patriotic zeal of the Municipal Council of eradicating everything that is British in free India. True this story is a must read for every Indians both of whom support or are against of this time to time zeal of the Government without paying any heed to the treasury. In A Night of Cyclone, the Talkative Man narrates an anecdote that though could be horrifying but was draped in humour in his unique style. Selvi is a wonderful tale of a singer turned to star by the scheming Mohan who finally receives a severe jolt from the performer he created. But Nitya disappointed me as it tried to bring back the days of ‘Swami and Friends’ but seemed to lose its goal. But Narayan was again in his elements in The Roman Image in which he again introduces TM and I think I become more and more a fan of the Talkative Man as I meet him each time. Infact as I read the story, I remembered the soap version and how I enjoyed that too. Next is A Horse and Two Goats which is perhaps the best of the collection and here in the course of the events a Tamil rustic man is seen to be conversing in his own language with a British who is turn is speaking in English and both are barely understanding each other in the truest sense. Though the entire narrative is in English, the author’s style has never prevented the reader to understand the comic part which occurs due to the linguistic difference. A Breath of Lucifer seems to be the only short story with a Prologue and this is also an example where a magnificent narrative awaits the reader which is based on a post operative patient and his attendant and I use the word magnificent as the patient was an eye-patient and the narration is from his perspective whose sense of vision is temporarily lost. Narayan is again brilliant in the portraiture of Uncle in the eyes of his adopted nephew and how the latter tries to justify his feelings towards his uncle as his character slowly evolves in front of him. The next is Annamalai where the reader might enjoy again the humour that blends well in the relationship of the master and his servant. The second best of the narrative to me in this collection is Salt and Sawdust where the expert cook and the lover in husband metamorphoses the life of their family in a classic tale of comedy and ambition. The list doesn’t stop here but continues with The Edge, The Mute Companions, Naga and The Seventh House till we reach the final in Under the Banyan Tree which is again a bit abstract to me.
Thus Penguin India presents a fitting tribute to this R.K. Narayan with a nice introduction by S. Krishnan but a slight mistake is present as though the back cover promises the book to contain the short story ‘The Shelter’ but actually the compilation misses it!

The Magic of Malgudi

I've never read R.K. Narayan's work but had been fascinated by the simple yet thought provoking episodes of the popular TV serial, "Malgudi Days", and one of these, viewed sometime in the previous year inspired me to have a look into his works. But at the 2008 Calcutta Book Fair, owing to my purchase exceeding my budget and the confusing titles of the Penguin India publications, which puzzled me to choose among the abridged and the unabridged versions, I didn't go for buying one. Later I researched @ wikipedia and penguin online and so this time at the Book Fair 2009, I purchased this copy containing

1. Swami and Friends
2. The Bachelor of Arts
3. The Vendor of Sweets

An introduction, summarising the contents by S. Krishnan, initially discouraged me as I don't like stories being told before going through the whole of it, but as I flipped though the initial chapters of Swami and Friends, I was instantly delighted to find that even if the whole story been known from the first, the author's style was simply so elegant and unique that just devouring the words can bring pleasure to the mind.
In Swami and Friends, the author has described the activites of the young schoolgoer Swami who lived in Malgudi, the fictitious Tamil town of India and barring the South Indian dishes I just couldn't find any difference between the protagonist and the ordinady school goer from any part of the country. Not only for Indian readers, this narrative will surely usher nostalgic school day memories for other readers from every part of the world.
I don't know, maybe it's my age that is responsible, but I liked 'The Bachelor of Arts' more than 'Swami' and starting from the 1st sentence, I just couldn't resist loving Chandar, the lead character. In this story the transition of a young scholar to a mature individual is brilliantly depicted and I found it quite justified in considering this to be the sequel to the first novel and while finishing it I was kept longing for the third in the trilogy, 'The English Teacher' that was sadly not a part of this volume. In fact Penguin India may seriously consider this and may reconfigure their volumes so as to maintain the continuity in the novels by Narayan.
But I think the best piece in the volume is 'The Vendor of Sweets', where the skilled penmanship of the author nicely portrays the conflict between the father and his growing son and nowhere else had I found the generation gap so decently depicted. Prior to reading this piece I had an apprehension whether this would be so much delightful as the other two as this was the 10th novel by Narayan and thus, I quite naturally & also erroneously assumed the lateness to adversely affect the writing. But as I was going through the piece I was gladly proven wrong and I'll may even say that this enchanting piece turned me into a follower of Narayan novels though the final chapters were a bit boring. The refreshingly curt way of narration adds to the splendour and the author never used too much emotion to sympathasize or alienate any particular character thus leaving it to the readers to infer about their nature. It won't be out of the place in acknowledging the fact that it was the televised edition of 'Vendor of Sweets' in the 'Malgudy Days' series that, in the 1st place, drove me to buy Narayan's novels.
The author covers all the aspects of everyday living including most of the emotions that a person, in his lifetime, goes through with the ease of a master storyteller. So his partrayal of severe misunderstandings, slight betrayals, forced hypocracies, illogical conjectures, cruel break ups, opportunistic behaviours never bring malice to the reader's mind, instead the unbiased readers can be silently amused while identifying himself/herself with the fictional characters. The realistic touch blended with humour, as was the custom of Mr. Narayan, has made the stories so much live, that I request all Indians to read this so as to understand India from a more rational and more Indian perspective.