The Bachelor of Arts – R.K. Narayan

The story describes the complex transition of an adolescent mind into adulthood and the heartbreak which a youth faces. It revolves around a young man named Chandran, who resembles an Indian upper middle class youth of the pre-independence era. First, Chandran’s college life in late colonial times is described. After graduation, he falls in love with a girl, but is rejected by the bride’s parents, since his horoscope describes him as a manglik, a condition in which a manglik can only marry another manglik and if not, the non-manglik will die. Malathi, the girl with whom Chandran falls in love after graduating from college, is then married to someone else.

Chandran is absolutely heartbroken to the extent that he goes to Madras and starts living on streets. Famished, delusioned and full of self-pity, he ends up wandering from one place to another. Also frustrated and desperate, he then embarks on a journey as Sanyasi. On his journey he meets many people and he is also misunderstood as a great sage by some villagers. After 8 months, he thinks of what mess he has become and thinks about his parents. Due to the compunctions and the realizations, he decides to return home. He takes up a job as a newsagent and decides to marry, in order to please his parents, thinking of the discomfort he had caused them earlier.

Even after returning home, he is still unable to get Malathi out of his head completely and though he tries hard, the pictures and memories of her keep haunting him for a long time. After a long time, his father comes to him with a proposal of marriage to another girl Susila. Chandran is still skeptical about love and marriage and initially refuses but later decides to see the girl. When he goes on to see the girl, he ends up falling in love with her.

Talkative Man – R.K. Narayan

The Talkative Man tells the story of a mysterious stranger who arrives at the Malgudi train station to pursue a purported U.N. project. The stranger winds up staying at Talkative Man’s home, where he begins to seduce the librarian’s daughter.

Swami and Friends – R.K. Narayan

His greatest passion is the M CC – the Malgudi Cricket Club – which he founds together with his friends: his greatest day is when the examinations are over and school breaks up – a time for revelry and cheerful riotousness. But the innocent and impulsive Swami lands in trouble when he is carried away by the more serious unrest of India in 1930. Somehow he gets himself expelled from two schools in succession, and when things have gone quite out of hand he is forced to run away from home …This is far more than a simple narrative of Swami’s adventures – charming and entertaining as they are. By the delicate sympathetically observed, the author establishes for us the child’s world as the child himself sees it: and beyond, the adult community he will one day belong to – in Swami’s case, the town of Malgudi, which provides the setting of almost all Narayan’s later novels.

Offering rare insight into the complexities of Indian middle-class society, R. K. Narayan traces life in the fictional town of Malgudi. The Dark Room is a searching look at a difficult marriage and a woman who eventually rebels against the demands of being a good and obedient wife. In Mr. Sampath, a newspaper man tries to keep his paper afloat in the face of social and economic changes sweeping India. Narayan writes of youth and young adulthood in the semi-autobiographical Swami and Friends and The Bachelor of Arts. Although the ordinary tensions of maturing are heightened by the particular circumstances of pre-partition India, Narayan provides a universal vision of childhood, early love and grief.

The Financial Expert – R.K. Narayan

In The Financial Expert, R. K. Narayan once again transports readers to the southern Indian town of Malgudi. This story centers around the life and pursuits of Margayya, a man of many hopes but few resources, who spends his time under the banyan tree offering expert financial advice to those willing to pay for his knowledge. Margayya’s rags-to-riches story brings forth the rich imagery of Indian life with the absorbing details and vivid storytelling that are Narayan’s trademarks.

Malgudi Days – R.K. Narayan

Malgudi Days is a collection of short stories by R.K. Narayan published in 1943.

The book includes 19 stories, all set in the fictional town of Malgudi, located in South India. Each of the stories portrays a facet of life in Malgudi.

The stories in the book include:

• “An Astrologer’s Day”: A short story in which an astrologer meets his rival who he thought had for long been dead.
• “The Missing Mail”: A story about Thannappa, a postman who doesn’t deliver a letter because of celebrations in a house.
• “The Doctor’s Word”: A story about Dr Raman, a doctor who believes good words can’t save lives, but tells a lie to his friend about his bad health.
• “The Blind Dog”: A story about a blind beggar who catches a dog to guide him through the streets.
• “Fellow Feeling”: A story about Rajam Iyer, a Tamil Brahmin who is travelling in a train compartment.
• “The Tiger’s Claw”: A story about The Talkative Man, a recurring character in a few short stories and his story about fighting a tiger.
• “Iswaran”: A story about a boy named “Iswaran” who failed his Intermediate Exams ten times, and when he passes it, in happiness, he gets drowned in the river Sarayu.
• “Forty-Five A Month”: A story about Daughter(Shanta) and her father(Venkat Rao), how the relationship between them and how he turned to realize that family feelings and joined together.
• “The Snake Song”: A story about a musician narrating his experience why he had stopped playing the flute.