The boy becomes a man. Review on Bachelor of Arts, The - R K Narayan

This is the story of a young boy called Chandran. And somewhere down the line, we begin to realize that Chandran exists among us, even though R K Narayan created this character in the early 1930s. The Bachelor of Arts is the story of this young man who is in the final year of his college, who ultimately grows up to be a man and gains the honor of the people around him.

The story, like almost all stories of R K Narayan, is set in the fictional town of Malgudi. Chandran is the elder son in a family of four. He has a loving father, caring mother and a naughty little brother. He has a friend called Ramu, who in later parts of the book, goes to Bombay and settles down in a decent job with the Railways. The book has been divided into four parts, each showing how the circumstances have affected Chandran in different ways.

Part 1 of the book shows the final year of college. This part shows the depth of Chandran’s friendship with Ramu although Ramu in later part of the book goes away and doesn’t try to contact Chandran in any possible way. This part describes in great detail what the students think about each other, about their college, teachers, and things in general. We see that Chandran is asked by his History teacher Prof. Raghavachar to start a History Association in the college. Initially Chandran dithers, but then accepts the offer and over the period of a few months, successfully arranges nearly 8 meetings of the association.

Part 2 starts at a point where Chandran has become a graduate. Everybody has started suggesting to him that he must go to Madras and study Law, but he declines the offers and decides to wait a year to go to England. Chandran wanders all over the town and specially on the banks of the Sarayu river. It is here on the river banks that he meets a girl who he thinks to be the most beautiful girl in the world. With inquires from his friend Mohan, he comes to know that the girl, who is named Malathi, is of marriageable age and is also of the same caste as his. This lifts his courage and he speaks to his parents about marriage. But his luck runs out when the pundit declares that the horoscopes don’t match. Distraught and heart-broken, Chandran decides to visit his cousin in Madras.

Part 3 shows that while Chandran visits Madras, he skips his cousin and goes to a hotel. In a way, Chandran tries to run away from everybody, and succeeds at it. At the hotel, he meets a man called Kailas, who virtually rules his life. But again Chandran gives him the slip and sleeps on the street for one night. It is then that he realizes that he can become a sanyasi. He wanders all over for nearly 8 months until, after a freak incident, he realizes that becoming a sanyasi is another form of suicide. He then decides to return home to Malgudi.

Part 4 marks the conclusion, where Chandran is shown to have matured. He is gracefully accepted by his family and soon starts his own business, and in due course of time, gets married according to the wishes of his parents.

R K Narayan has written some of the finest books of our times. It is worth noting here that Narayan’s wife died soon after this book was published and the pains he went through is evident from the books and short stories that followed. But this book has been described by many critics as funny and happy. This is evident from these lines, where Natesan, the college union secretary has asked Chandran to speak in favor of a topic:

Speaks Natesan, “I can’t get a Prime mover for the debate tomorrow evening. The subject is that in the opinion of this house historians should be slaughtered first.” He tried to be off, but Chandran caught his hand and held him: “I am a history student. I can’t move the subject. What a subject! My professor will eat me up!”

“Don’t worry. I won’t invite your professor”

The author also tries to delve into the human mind. For example, when Chandran is offered alcohol by Kailas, he retorts and says that he has made a vow in front of his mother that he will never touch alcohol in his life. To this Kailas says: ”Then don’t. Mother is a sacred commodity. It is a commodity whose value we don’t realize as long as it is with us. One must lose it to know what a precious possession it is.”

After reading through the first part of the book, one can realize that all the incidents in Chandran’s life are in some way connected to our own life. And this is what makes this book worth such a good read. So many of the incidents in Chandran’s life can be directly or indirectly related to our own life such that we find ourselves stepping in his shoes and trying to imagine what we might have done in such a situation. The last few pages are worth a good read, where Mohan tries to convince Chandran to get married. Mohan has been described as the callous realist and he questions Chandran as to why he doesn’t want to get married. Chandran finally realizes that his love for Malathi was no more than an infatuation and that she was someone else’s wife now.

In writing this book, R K Narayan has shown that it is only an Indian author who can understand the myriad intricacies of the Indian culture and society. Critic Graham Greene has compared Narayan to one of his contemporaries Rudyard Kipling and has found that Narayan’s books go well beyond the skewed outlook of foreign writers towards India.

It is rather unfortunate that many of us (or maybe a lot of us) do not know much about R K Narayan’s books beyond Swami and Friends, The Guide and Malgudi Days. Although this is the first book that I have read, and I found it extremely entertaining and unputdownable. I am looking forward to read more books of Narayan.