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.