( This essay was written originally back in 09/08/2014, and the reading of the book was preceded by Swami and Friends. At this point when am returning to Narayan, as I've just started reading his biography - and that may call for reading of at least a couple of more autobiographical novels. Am transferring this old essay to these pages for completion purposes.)
As with Swamy and friends, Narayan doesn't depend on a plot for keeping the reader attracted to his work. The life of the youth Chandran whom we meet, and is the base of the story is again, presented in "a language of no guile", if am to paraphrase Abeysekara. We see Chandran going through the every day challenges of an under graduate. Upon graduating, his parents are generous to give him enough time to think about his future. He falls in love, but it doesn't materialize in marriage as the stars come against him. He leaves Malgudi, for Madras, but avoids his uncle and leads his life as a pseudo-sanyasi. After eight months he returns home on his accord. His friend manages to influence him on the prospects of running the local newspaper agency, which Chandran runs with much application. Then marriage favours him, via a proposal and he realises that this is the girl for him, and his previous infatuations meant nothing. Narayan doesn't forget to end the story in suspense, as Chandran's wife falls ill, and there are no letters from her for six days - the final scene of the book is Chandran leaving office to try and catch the six o'clock train to go and see his wife. We are not hinted with what happens. Did the stars have anything against any wife of Chandran ?
As the summary suggests there is nothing remarkable about the plot - yet there is an element of simple attraction in this simple tale. Is it the simple attraction guile-less language and the tales of a lad who could've been anyone of us at that age, in which we tend to discover ourselves. Narayan has to be credited for the characters of parents that he has created. They are almost exemplary - the love shown by the parents to their son is so obvious, but somehow never a burden to the son, who is given full freedom to mature and discover himself. I rally don't know whether South Indian parents are of that blend or nature - maybe a considerable proportion of them are. Narayan has also captured the typical impatience and haste of a young man of that age. It is this element of naturalness that many of us can relate - the various measures, that makes Narayan attractive to his readers.
The period in which Chandran spends at the university is also quite well presented here. The ideological differences between the white administration and masses is displayed. If there is anything that I found missing in Narayan's two books I read, is that he doesn't portray a wide cross section of the society in South India. That is an aspect I will lookout for in my future readings of him.
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First published in 1937
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