Bachelor of Arts

Author: RK Narayan

Chandran is a worried man; his role as a prime mover against history is a difficult one, more so since he is a student of  History. He manages it, just to attract further responsibilities in his final year of Bachelor of Arts degree.

With the exams looming, Chandran somehow manages to waste his time promenading the banks of river Sarayu, roaming around with his friend Ramu, charting a time table for his study plan, then making changes to it according to his new responsibilities at college, and then making further changes to catch an early morning flower thief.

The thief turns out to be a Sadhu, an early riser who thought disturbing anyone so early in the morning is far sinner than picking up flowers without their knowledge. He has no worries, and he is left off after Chandran's mother makes it clear that flowers are for God's worship and it doesn't matter how it reached God.

The hard worker Chandran is, he manages to complete his exams without further problems. At twenty two, his life takes a turn on one of his usual walk on the banks of river Sarayu. Cupid strikes him, and he immediately conveys his marriage proposal to his father. The girl, a fifteen year old is unaware, though her age is over the marriageable age in a pre-independent India.

His father makes arrangement through a broker, and it turns out that their horoscopes doesn't match. Horoscopes, dowry, caste, status are some of the few obstacles in any Indian marriage. Chandran is adamant, for he could not think of anything but the girl, and does everything in his power to convince the girl. The societal limitations in a village preventing him from meeting her privately any cost. Chandran's loves fizzles out, the girl never meets him even once, and soon is happily married to her relative.

Soon after the girl's marriage , Chandran leaves to Madras for a change. He does not meet their uncle, but settles in a lodge in Egmore, and roams around Broadway with an acquaintance . After a confrontation with a whore, he leaves Madras to anywhere the train will carry him. He decides to become a Sadhu, for he is too scared to attempt suicide and far scared to live further with his lost love.

He roams around villages without a shirt, eating and sleeping on charity, and the wonderful land that India is, he becomes a Sadhu of the highest order, fed and pampered by a village which hadn't been visited by a holy man in the recent past. After enjoying for a brief period, Chandran began to feel awkward, and often guilty of cheating the villagers. What is he going to do ? Attempt suicide ? Runaway from the village? Or return to Malgudi where his lost love would haunt him forever.

It is not in anyway a moving story, but as with all R.K.Narayan books, it is more about people and their petty problems. What happens if we were to chose to become a Sadhu for every problem we face, after all 'being a Sadhu is not so easy as it sounds' says RKN. Wonderful read.

The world of Nagraj

Author: R.K. Narayan

As always, it is a pure delight to read through rather travel along with Nagraj in the mystical town of Malgudi. There are no big twists just for the sake of impressing the reader nor does it have a new storyline to talk loud about. Nevertheless it is refreshing to look into people through R.K. Narayan’s eyes.

Nagraj is a wealthy man with an ancestral residence and a life long ambition of writing a book about Narada, the mythological figure. Childless and nearing his middle age he loves his wife Seeta and spends most of his time in his ancestral home. One day Tom, Nagraj’s brother’s son turns up at Nagraj’s house and vows never to return to his father Gopu. Tom, like every unguided teenager gets into trouble and Nagraj could not even bring up to talk anything to him. Gopu blames Nagraj for Tom’s predicament, and Seeta compels him to question Tom about his whereabouts.

Later Tom's problems makes Nagraj wonder why did he have to take care of an unnecessary responsibility and leads towards a predictable but certainly engaging climax.

More than the story, the thought process of the protagonist is the most curios feature of R.K. Narayan’s writing and he does not fail this time too.

The Painter of Signs

Author : R.K. Narayan

Genre : Romance, humor

Written by R.K. Narayan, The Painter of Signs is a smooth work of fiction, the entire plot being very simple which can well be encapsulated into a short story. The beauty of the story lies in the way in which the author has handled the romantic angle between the two lead characters, Raman and Daisy.

But as R.K. Narayan mentioned somewhere in one of his essays, "It’s a bad habit to give out the entire story in a few words, on which the author must have worked laboriously to notch up over 80,000 words".

Anyway, what I’m going to write is something that can induce my reader to read The Painter of Signs.

Maldgudi is the little fictional town in South India where the story takes place. Many of R.K. Narayan's are woven around this town. His novel can give you a bright insight into the kind of life led by the people in South India, the daily dose of coffee ,the market place and so on.

Raman is a simple painter, as u might have already guessed ,the painter of Malgudi, who resides in a house near a river. Daisy, a new entrant to the author’s fictional town, is a social servant bent on bringing India’s population down. The intimacy between the two characters is well portrayed, without going overboard. I remember an essay by the same author where he says that he better likes to shut the door even when his characters are in deep love, a very unusual thought I would say.

The story is written in a particular style where the author narrates the story in a third person stand as if he was in the minds of Raman, a lot of his thoughts and comments add spice to the thrilling narration.

I can assure you a pleasant read and a feeling of being with Raman in Malgudi, in a very Narayan style.