Favorite Authors

R. K. Narayan (1906-2001) was one of the great Indian authors of the 20th century.  Writing in English, he published 34 novels, short stories, non-fiction (mainly memoirs), and condensed narratives of the Hindu epics The Ramayana (1972) and The Mahabharata (1978).  

 

Rasipuram Krishnaswami Narayanswami was born into a Tamil Brahmin family in Madras (now Chennai), India.  He used “R. K. Narayan” for his pen name on the advice of British writer Graham Greene, a major promoter of Narayan’s career.  Greene explained, "Narayan wakes in me a spring of gratitude … Without him I could never have known what it is like to be Indian.”

 

An avid reader in his youth, Narayan graduated from Maharaja College of Mysore, then briefly taught school until resigning when ordered to substitute for the physical education teacher. He thereafter dedicated his professional career to writing, initially as a journalist.

 

Many of Narayan’s novels and short stories are set in the fictional Indian town of Malgudi, beginning with Swami and Friends (1935), which features a group of schoolboys.  The novel is the first of a semi-autobiographical trilogy, which also include The Bachelor of Arts (1937) and The English Teacher (1945).  

 

The Guide (1958) interweaves two stories, past and present, about the title character, Raju, a shopkeeper in Malgudi.  He becomes a tourist guide to an anthropologist, Marco, and his wife, Rosie, with whom Raju falls in love.  He eventually manages her dancing career, but her success is his downfall.  He starts spending extravagantly and is tricked into forgery, which lands him in jail.  

 

Upon release, Raju is mistaken for a holy man while resting in a temple.  At first, he does not correct the misconception so that food donations from devotees will continue, but as larger groups await his spiritual guidance, he starts taking his role seriously. This excellent novel ends on an ambiguous, thought-provoking note.  The Guide won the Sahitya Akademi Award from India’s National Academy of Letters in 1960. 

 

Raman, the titular character in The Painter of Signs (1977), considers himself “an artist in lettering.”  He lives with his elderly aunt, who raised him from childhood after his parents’ death, and who lives to serve him.  Often a source of irritation to Raman, he will finally realize all the work she has done for him and is “[aghast… he had taken so much for granted all these years” (pp. 136-137) Narayan, although not orphaned, had spent a considerable amount of his youth in the care of his grandmother, a possible model for the aunt.  

 

In The Painter of Signs, the aunt is very religious, attending temple daily to hear The Ramayana read and consulting astrology to advise Raman (unsolicited) and village women who visit.  Raman, however, “was determined to establish the Age of Reason in the world.” (p. 5) 

 

But Raman’s rational world is unsettled by his love for Daisy, who heads the family planning center in Malgudi.  Determined to remain a bachelor, Raman tries to resist his feelings, but while on a tour with Daisy of villages where she wants him to paint signs promoting birth control, he prays to a temple goddess to make Daisy his wife. 

 

In her youth, Daisy had run away from a large Hindu family, and ended up educated by Christian missionaries.  Resolutely independent, she refused to be baptized but adopted an English name and applies missionary zeal to her quest to limit India’s growing population.  “She smiled when she could forget her mission, and became grim when the population problems oppressed her mind.” (p. 49)  

 

Although very different in personality and beliefs, both the aunt and Daisy have sacrificed much to serve:  the one and the many, respectively.  The two women do not interact.  The aunt is concerned about Daisy possibly being of another caste and religion.  When Daisy jokes about the aunt’s religious practices, Raman at first joins the jocularity, then remarks that his “aunt has complete trust in the gods and possesses greater serenity than anyone else I have known.” (p. 142).

 

The Painter of Signs ends in Voltairean fashion:  “He … turned towards The Boardless—that solid, real world of sublime souls who minded their own business.” (p. 153)

Narayan’s other major novels include The Financial Expert (1952), Waiting for the Mahatma (1955), The Man-Eater of Malgudi (1961), The Vendor of Sweets (1967), and A Tiger for Malgudi (1983). He was the recipient of numerous awards and honors.