Jan 29, 2011 09:06 PM
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“It was Monday morning. Swaminathan was reluctant to open his eyes…He shuddered at the very thought of school.” Thus begins R.K. Narayan classic chronicle, on the adventures of a school going boy, named Swami, and his friends, Rajam and Mani, in the sleepy and picturesque town of Malgudi. Narayan creates a vivid, practical and amazingly accurate picture of his brainchild, the fictional town of Malgudi, so accurately does he write it, it seems as if Narayan was himself present at the place where this epic story occurs.
R.K.Narayan, is at the top of his form, lucidly, and carefully supplying even the minutest details of every occasion, whether it be the formation of a cricket team, Swami’s feeling when he is unable to solve a problem regarding Fractions, or his insatiable need to have a hoop, Narayan gets it right every single time. He rightly depicts the emotions of a boy, about to enter his adolescence, and puts it on paper with such, fluency; it’s hard to put the book down once you get past the first page. His depiction of the scenes, from the swadeshi movement to the cricket match, and from the enemity between two persons, to how they become the bestest of friends is unparalleled in Indian literature.
This is a book that makes it look as if there nothing as interesting in the world as life in a village. After all those books that tell you about life in a city, and rediscovering it, this books comes as a breather. The book, first published in 1935, rightfully describes the pre-independence India, with the Police Superintendent being a civil servant, and his family enjoying the cream off the pie in the small village. For children, who too want to run out of the house and start their “own cricket team and challenge the world” like Narayan’s lead character Swami, this book is non-stop entertainment. Classic scenes like a boy’s excitement to see his sibling for the first time, or the heroic way in which Swami catches a thief, or the feeling of helplessness when your best buddy goes away…for ever…make this book a milestone in Narayan’s career.
With excellent illustrations from R.K.Laxman, the characters come back to life in front of us, and we just sit, mesmerized by the beauty of this breath-taking odyssey, as we set out with Narayan, along with Swami and his Friends to take a bird’s eye view of the amazing, but surprisingly full of surprises town of Malgudi. As per my view, this book by far, proves to be more of a stress reliever for me, and trust me, this book makes me fall in love with village-life, taking me past the Sarayu river, down the Trunk road, and into the Bombay Anand Bhavan making my mouth water to have a bit of those divine sweets it made. Narayan proves to be a great cricket fan, rightfully spelling(through Swami’s voice, of course) ‘Willard Junior as ‘Vilord June-ear’.
Come; enthrall yourself in this epic journey that takes you to the moribund, but never-seen-before city life.
