Remembering the literary enchanter of story telling, also called often the Indian Chekove by many, Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami who was born on this day in 1906. A pure artist as he was, he had no explicit commitment to art. He could give life to the plethora of his ordinary characters (Raju, Rosie, Swami, Natraj, Vasu, Sri Ram, Bharati, Krishna and many others) so that they may live and breathe in the fictional town of Malgudi ( like Wessex of Thomas Hardy) and may ever embrace all types of influences that come in course of their living leading to unpredictable rise or fall in their circumstances. R.K. Narayan dealt his stories with a subtle sense of irony and an undercurrent of racy humour in a language quite simple, yet amazingly elegant and catchy. His speciality lies in the echoing of Indian social complexities through his engrossing stories with a touch of matchless irony and humour.Through Malgudi (and his other stories), RK Narayan displayed everyday Indian life, which often described the juxtapositions between modernization and ancient traditions. In doing so, he showed the world what life was like in India and the culture and sensibilities of its people. This was important because during the British Raj, the popular portrayals of India were created by its colonizers rather than its people. Books like EM Forster’s A Passage to India have overrated opinions about India. It is a far cry from truth because the colonizers are prioritized. Narayan, however, prioritized Indians in his stories absorbingly. Even after being disembodied after death, a writer lives through his characters and their dialogues. So Narayan is with us and will continue to be with the posterity in all times to come. I remember my favourite writer on his birthday with his brief and simple, but sane and appealing observation on writing, "You become writer by writing. It is a yoga" and perhaps it was this yoga that gave him a long life of 95 years despite numerous highs and lows of his life. I pray God sincerely to send Narayan once again in this land of ours to amuse and enthral us with his newly invented stories. Narayan's literary friend Graham Greene observed:
"Whom next shall I meet in Malgudi? That is the thought that comes to me when I close a novel of Mr Narayan. I don't wait for another novel. I wait to go out of my door into those loved and shabby streets and see with excitement and a certainty of pleasure a stranger approaching, past the bank, the cinema, the haircutting saloon, a stranger who will greet me I know with some unexpected and revealing phrase that will open a door on to yet another human existence."
Happy Birthday Indian Chekov at your place in heaven.
🌺🙏🏼🙇🏻♂️🌺
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