REMEMBERING THE MALGUDI MAN
IN HIS
CENTENARY YEAR
I.
Satyasree
The year 2006 is very special for numerous readers and admirers of R. K. Narayan all over the globe because it is the birth centenary year of this literary genius of India. He is a renowned author who gave a new meaning and shape to Indian writing in English. His life has a message which a keen reader will find in every literary contribution he made. It is interesting and useful to look briefly into the biography of this astounding personality who belonged to the most happening period in Indian history – the 20th century.
The story of the life of any person in its outward incident can be narrated in two or three pages. But the social and cultural factors that shaped his life, the incidents and experiences that influenced the course of his life, his accomplishments, his setbacks, and above all his memories, sweet and sour and the philosophy he developed as he passed through the challenges and chances of life cannot be synoptically surveyed in a few paragraphs. However it is quite an enlightening experience to recall the life of R. K. Narayan, the man and the writer, who lived and died full of ‘years and honours’.
Rasipuram Krishnaswamy Narayana Swamy, popularly known as R. K. Narayan to his countless readers and admirers around the world, was born on 10th October, 1906, at Number One, Vellala Street, Purasawalkam, Madras (now Chennai). He had a special attachment to the place of his birth because he spent his early childhood and school years in his maternal grand mother’s house. He was very much attached to his grandmother who left a lasting impression on him. Narayan’s family was a large and lively one. Next to religion, education was the most compulsive force in the family. Though his family gave a lot of importance to education, Narayan did not evince keen interest in studies. He was an average student and felt uncomfortable with subjects like physics and chemistry. He thought he would fail in these two subjects in the University entrance exam held in the high school. Instead he failed in English.
Narayan fell in love with Rajam, the young and beautiful daughter of a headmaster, Sri Nageswara Iyer. Matching of horoscopes of the boy and the girl is a prerequisite before the wedding in a traditional Hindu family. Rajam’s father felt that the horoscopes were incompatible. Narayan defied the finding and married Rajam in 1934 going against tradition. Hema, their only child was born in 1936. Unfortunately Rajam died prematurely in 1939, five years after their marriage. In “My Days” Narayan talks poignantly about bereavement of his wife. His moving novel “The English Teacher”, published in 1946, describes his agony and subsequent recovery from the shock of his wife’s death. After this tragedy he developed a personal philosophy. Life became meaningless to him and he lived as a recluse. He lost interest in writing. However, he overcame his grief soon and returned to the world of letters, Hema, his daughter being the only ray of hope.
Narayan’s writing career is perhaps the longest which spans from 1935 with his first novel, “Swamy and Friends”, to 1992 with his last novel “Grandmother’s Tale”. Striking a balance between informality and seriousness he produced fiction which contained classical value. A nonagenarian, Narayan has put more life into his years than years into his life. He was an optimist whose optimism was tempered with realism. He believed with Browning that “the first is made for the last of life and the best is yet to be.” He was a man of few words and preferred his works to speak for him. He shunned publicity and lime-light and was camera shy.
Narayan’s writings mostly revolve round Indian themes and his characters rarely move out of Malgudi, the fictional town he created, filling it with scores of unforgettable characters, themes and subjects, making it a microcosm of Indian culture and tradition. His Malgudians in all their ‘oddities and eccentricities’ are permanently etched in the minds of his readers. His writings show what Indianness is.
R. K. Narayan’s road to success was not an easy one. His autobiography, “My Days” presents a graphic account of his long and arduous journey. Only people close to him know what trials and tribulations he underwent to reach the pinnacle of success that he scaled in the world of letters. In this memoir he gives a factual account of his life cruising down the memory lane.
Graham Green, a long time friend of R. K. Narayan, paying him a rich tribute says, “Narayan wakes in me a spring of gratitude, for he has offered me a second home. Without him I could never have known what it is like to be an Indian.” It is interesting to note that at the suggestion of Graham green and Hamish Hamilton, Narayan shortened his long name and came to be known as R. K. Narayan.
The Isa Upanishad prescribes a hundred years of Purna Ayush for a Purna Purusha and a man should lead a happy and useful life performing noble deeds. As though to fulfill this condition Narayan distinguished himself in many ways with his scholarship, versatility, originality and creativity as a cultured human being, an honoured Member of the Rajya Sabha, an efficient speaker, a brilliant exponent of Indian culture and human values, as a cultural ambassador of India and a prolific writer. Narayan lived up to ninety four, living an aesthetically satisfying and spiritually absorbing life, attaining the stature of being a Purna Pursha with his outstanding contribution to the world of Indo-Anglian literature as a man of letters. As long as Indian writing in English flourishes enjoying a special status of being a literary genre, R. K. Narayan’s writings will be cherished.
Ms. Vimala Anandaram, niece of Narayan, pays glowing tributes to this creative genius par excellence as she reminisces her uncle’s words “We are here on earth to live – to experience what ever comes, to act on that experience as well as we can and have to grow. Life is a candle meant to burn ever brighter, a fire meant to light other fires. It is a gift from god and an inheritance for those who come after.” Narayan is a legend who lives on and on and on.