BOOKS FOR THE MONTH

I dedicated myself to reading R.K Narayan's novels for the whole of this month. I was so impressed by the two books "English Teacher" and "Guide" which I had read long ago, that I bought a big collection of five R.K Narayan novels from Crossword. The following are about three of these stories I read recently.

Vendor of Sweets R.K.Narayan
I remember seeing this story in the Malgudi days serial shown on television. The story is centered on the owner of a sweet shop. This vendor has a son who is quite detached from his father though the vendor is quite affectionate from his son. The son is quite uninterested in his studies and he suddenly decides to abandon it and take up writing as a profession. He makes hardly an effort towards this and finally realises that he wants to go to the U.S. much to his father's dislike.

Years pass by and the son returns home with a foreigner whom he claims as is wife. He has a new business proposal for manufacturing Story Writing machines (similar to type writers) for which he asks financial support from his father. The vendor gets quite attached to his daughter-in-law though he refuses to part with his money for financing his son's business.Eventually it turns out that the son has not wedded the foreigner girl at all and the son sends her out of the house too. The story ends with the Vendor of Sweets abandoning his shop and house and going and settling down with a sculptor who has plans to build a big temple.


Bachelor of Arts R.K.Narayan
This was a very enjoyable novel about the life of a B.A Graduate, his college and after college experiences. He falls in love with a girl and the girl is married off to some other person without his love being expressed. After this he enters a period of self destruction wherein he becomes a sort of an ascetic. Then he realises the sacrifices his parents had made for educating him and feels that if he carries on like this it would be really unfair to them. So he goes back home and takes up a newspaper agency where he is quite successful. His home atmosphere and involvement in work makes him forget his bitter love experience and now he becomes ready for another love affair with a new girl!


Man Eater of Malgudi R.K.Narayan
This story revolves around an owner of a printing press and his idyllic life. A taxidermist arrives as a guest and friend to stay in the printing press. He is a dangerous huge man and a big bully who causes great havoc wherever he goes. The story ends with a rather comical death of this "Man-Eater" of a guy and peace is restored in Malgudi.


Now reading the Dark Room by R.K. Narayan.