Paper 14; Module 34; E Text (A) Personal Details
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1 Paper 14; Module 34; E Text (A) Personal Details Role Name Affiliation Principal Investigator Prof. Tutun University of Hyderabad Mukherjee Paper Coordinator Prof. Asha Kuthari Guwahati University Chaudhuri, Content Writer/Author Anindita Das Guwahati University (CW) Content Reviewer (CR) Dr. Manasi Bora Dept. of English, Guwahati University Language Editor (LE) Dr. Dolikajyoti Assistant Professor, Guwahati Sharma, University (B) Description of Module Item Description of module Subject Name English Paper name Indian Writing in English Module title R.K. Narayan: My Days Module ID Module 34 2 MODULE 34 MY DAYS by R.K NARAYAN Rashipuram Krishnaswami Narayanswami, commonly known as R.K Narayan, is the extensively read Indian writer in English. The subject matter of his writings includes the small incidents and happenings that he witnessed in real life. He was contemporary to novelists Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao, who were known for their non-fictional works also. Apart from the fictions, Narayan wrote many short stories, articles, sketches, essays and travel books throughout his career as a writer. Born in Madras in the year 1906, Narayan remains the widely acclaimed writer in the realm of Indian Writing in English. However, to talk about his novels, the most fascinating fact about them is that except a single novella The Grandmother’s Tale (1993), all of his novels are set in an imaginary town called Malgudi. Many of short stories are written with Malgudi in their backdrop. Though the town existed only through his words, it created such an effect that the readers felt it to be real. Narayan commented about it as “if it’s a real town it’s a nuisance for a writer” because he thought that people would tend to find inexactness in it. As it was an imaginary one, it could fit in everywhere. The fourteen novels he wrote depict the simple life of the people of Malgudi, its politics and absurdity with all kinds of changes that actually take place in a town. Swami and Friends (1935), The Financial Expert (1952), Guide 1958), Waiting for Mahatma (1955), Mr.Sampath: The Printer of Malgudi (1949), The Man Eater of Malgudi (1961), The Vendor of Sweets (1967) and the rest of Malgudi novels explore different issues related to Indian context, specifically to South Indian urban and semi urban life, where life is portrayed in terms of colonialism, socio-political and familial issues, put forward in a very subtle way by Narayan. He, being the witness to the British life, came across all the changes in educational system, administration, railways and 3 so on which are manifested through his novels. Narayan viewed both the new and the old India, the transitional period, aptly embodied in his writings quite often. His stories were serialised in television which became very popular and his novel Guide (1958) was adapted as a film also. Nevertheless, in spite of the fact that Narayan always kept himself aloof from the public world, he wrote his memoir My Days, which was published in the year 1974. The tradition of writing autobiographies and memoirs in English can be said to have began with some of the notable figures such as Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Kasiprasad Ghose who inspired Mahatma Gandhi, Lajpat Rai and Jawaharlal Nehru to write theirs. But the Autobiography of Lutullah, A Mahomedan and His Transactions With Fellow Creatures (1857) is considered to be the first one written in English. Now, the basic difference between a memoir and an autobiography is that the former is autobiographical in nature which emphasises on the author’s self in the process of development while the latter deals with the events, people and experiences that mould the personality of that person. To name a few more prominent personalities who have remarkably contributed in shaping the modern Indian history and wrote their life stories are Bipin Chandra Pal, Subhash Chandra Bose and S. Radhakrishnan. The literary figures such as Dom Moraes, N. C Chaudhuri and Mulk Raj Anand too have written their autobiographies. In Ranga Rao’s words the memoir of R. K Narayan ….. “My Days is the story of Narayan’s nurture. This memoir presents the archetypal story of a self- launched artist; we are privileged to witness here the making of an Indian novelist in English”. My Days acquaints the readers with Narayan’s boyhood, his journey as a writer and the trauma he underwent after he lost his wife early in his life. It also reveals the circumstances 4 revolving around the creation of his novels. Narayan begins his memoir recalling his childhood as: All day long I sat half buried in castles and mountain ranges, unaware of the fierce Madras sun overhead. I had a peacock and a monkey for company......I cannot say exactly when they came into my life, but they seemed to have been always there for me. He spent most of his childhood under the care of his maternal grandmother in Madras as he had many siblings and so his mother could not take care of all her children. His time was spent mostly with the pets, perhaps for the reason that he was a lonely child, who occasionally had the company of his uncle. He remembers his uncle, who was a college student then, preoccupied with photography and drama. As a student Narayan did not show much proficiency in school. But at home he was compelled to do lessons on ragas, Sanskrit Slokas, Tamil and multiplication by his grandmother. His exposure to the dual world of religion, Christianity at school and Hinduism as a Hindu Brahmin at home and vicinity left an indelible mark in his young mind. The city of Madras, the active life of his grandmother, his fears and everything else he came across is recorded in his memoir. Though Narayan was a quiet, dreamy and shy as a child, he had a very observant nature. All these experiences of his boyhood later inspired him to create the character of Swami for his first novel Swami and Friends. His mischief as a child, freaking out with his “gang” of friends in the summer breaks during his school days in Madras finds expression in his fiction. Later on, he had to make a lot of adjustments when he had to live with his family during his holidays in Mysore and the other places wherever his father was transferred time to time. Another activity which had a great impact on Narayan’s writing career is reading. He became an avid reader since a very young age. He had the privilege of accessing books from the library of the school where his father was a teacher. As in My Days he writes: 5 My father did not mind our taking away whatever we wanted to read- provided we put them back on his desk without spoiling them, as they had to be placed on the school’s reading- room table on Monday morning. So our week-end reading was full and varied. We could dream over the advertisement pages in the Boy’s Own Paper or the Strand Magazine. Through the Strand we made the acquaintance of all English writers: Conan Doyle, Wodehouse, W.W Jacobs, Arnold Bennet, and every English fiction writer worth the name.... Reading had been a passion for Narayan. When he failed in his university entrance examination, he got ample time to pursue his practice of reading. He was immensely influenced by the views of Rabindranath Tagore on education and his poetry as well. His reading included the “World Classics” and the fictions with tragic ending. In My Days Narayan tells about all the ups and downs of his writing career. First of all, it was not an easy task to take up writing as a profession at that time. He was discouraged by many, calling it unwise to consider writing as means of earning. But Narayan was determined. Henceforth, after a few vain attempts on engaging himself in any other livelihood, including a school teacher, he thus expressed: After the final and irrevocable stand I took, I felt lighter and happier. I did not encourage anyone to comment on my deed or involve myself in any discussion. I sensed that I was respected for it. At least there was an appreciation of the fact that I knew my mind. Thus, his writing career began, though not very smoothly. His father thought it to be a waste of time to spend on the huge typewriter and called it “that road roller”, which Narayan used for typing. He then moved to Bangalore, as his grandmother was there to revive from her illness. After sometime, Narayan all set, embarked on his journey as a writer. He thus expresses: 6 On a certain day in September, selected by my grandmother for its auspiciousness, I bought an exercise book and wrote the first line of a novel; as I sat in a room nibbling my pen and wandering what to write, Malgudi with its little railway station swam into view... There was no looking back then onwards. One after another he penned down his fictions, though not without occasional hindrances. The raw material for his writing was the life itself. He drew his inspiration from the mundane, transforming it to be real in the readers’ minds. He talks about it in My Days as: I wished to attack the tyranny of Love and see if Life could offer other values than the inevitable Man-woman relationship to a writer......I found in the life around me plenty of material. The atmosphere and mood were all important. Life offered enough material to keep me continuously busy.