Page 147 - DENG103_English - I

English–I Jayatee Bhattacharya, Lovely Professional University

Notes
Unit 14: R.K. Narayan’s “Malgudi Days”:

Discussion on All Spheres of the Text and Questions

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
14.1 Description of R.K. Narayan’s “Malgudi days”
14.2 Summary
14.3 Keywords
14.4 Review Questions

14.5 Further Readings

Objectives

After studying this unit, you will be able to:
• Discuss the characteristics of Malgudi days

• Know when the later collection of Malgudi day was published.

Inroduction

‘Malgudi Days‘ is a collection of short stories that comprises of three stories. ‘Swami and
Friends‘ is a story well loved by almost everyone. This book basically goes into the details of
swami‘s childhood and his friendship with Rajam and Mani. These three were inseparable.
This was created in pre-independence era and it‘s really funny as well as touchy to see swami
and his classmate‘s reactions to a riot, which takes place outside his school, protesting about
the British Raj. But most of the ambience that Narayan creates is so fluid and perfect, that
anyone can swept away without having any knowledge of it. Then came the ‘The bachelor of
Art‘. This is about Chandran who is confused about as to what is his true purpose in life. We
are swept along with him on his journeys of self-revelation with captivation. It‘s really amazing
how the human mind can absorb emotions and translate them into something else. The whole
story is about Chandran finding out whether he is in love with the lady whom he professes
to love or not. The third story is really fascinating. It‘s about Jagan and his son Mali. It shows
the struggle between the generations, i.e. the generation gap that exists between parents and
children. All these stories are really enchanting and leave the reader with a good mood after
finishing the book.

14.1 Description of R.K. Narayan’s “Malgudi Days”

This collection of short stories being published by Bt Bound, William Heinemann, Viking
Press, and Penguin Classics truly signifies the lifestyle of the people of Malgudi.
Malgudi Days later collection was published on 1975. And it draws from two earlier collections
and includes some New Stories. They are really short and sometimes are just three pages.
They are very crisply plotted. Some of the better stories seem almost like textbook examples

140 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY