Discuss the Life Introduction of R. K. Narayan.

Ans.

Introduction to the Author

R. K. Narayan was born in 1906 in Madras to a school teacher of a village named Rasipuram (Salem district). His father’s name was Krishnaswami lyer. Hence the R in his name stands for Rasipuram and K for his father Krishnaswami. In place of Narayan Swami he calls himself Narayan. As a student Narayan was not brilliant. He failed both in the High school and Intermediate examinations. He graduated at the age of twenty four from Maharaja College, Mysore, in 1930. Then he worked as a clerk to support his family, and then as a teacher in a village school. But he did not like jobs. He wanted to be a writer. So he gave up these jobs after some time. He started writing as a journalist. His first novel Swami and Friends was published in 1935. The most important event of his life took place in 1935. when he met his future wife Rajam, for the first time. He felt in love with her at first sight. Then he went to the girl’s father. Nageswara lyer, and proposed marriage. The girl’s parents impressed by his frankness and honesty agreed to the marriage. He had a daughter Hema. His wife died in 1939. For six years after his terrible loss, Narayan did not write any novel.

Success as a writer

His major novel. The English teacher 1945 was preceded by volumes of short stories like Malgudi Days (1941). Dodu and Other Stories (1943) and Cyclone & Other Stories (1944). Thereafter appeared An Astrologer’s Day and Other Stories (1947). Mr. Sampath (1949). The Financial Expert (1952). Waiting for the Mahatma (1955). Laweley Road (1956). The Guide (1958). Next Sunday, a collection of sketches and essays (1960), My Dateless Diary (1961). The Man-Eater of Malgudi (1962). Gods Demons and Other Stories (1965). The Vendor of Sweets and A Horse and Two Goats (1970). A version of the Ramayan based on Kamban was published in 1973. Talkative man, A Tiger of Malgudi, The World of Nagraj are his other great novels.

The Guide received the Sahitya Academy Award (1990). The novel has been filmed. Narayan was awarded Padma Bhusan in 1969. R. K. Narayan is a writer of considerable merit. He observes life in its depth and variety. The characters he has portrayed are generally from the middle-class society. He has a keen eye for the comic in life around him. Irony is the most powerful literary device used by Narayan to convey the incongruity and the contradiction between reality and appearance. He has successfully established himself as a crea writer, who balances the roles of a spokesman of the community and that of the free spirit of a writer. He pays considerable attention to personal experience. His childhood experiences have given him raw material for the creation of his characters. With his deep understanding of psychology of children the delineation of child-characters adds a new dimension to his growth as an artist.

In 1967, the university of Leeds conferred on him the degree of Honorary D. Lit. in 1973. The British Council enrolled him as an eminent writer’ of India writing in English. It also included his name in its series Writer and Their Works R. K. Narayan is also well-known in Britain and American, as an eminent writer of English Literature in India. In this field he is considered as great as Graham Green and Faulkner. In 1973 in Britain his writings were considered best from the India soil. They have been published by Methuen Co., London. Many of his novels and short stories have also been published in France, Germany and Holand. R. K. Narayan has so far published eleven novels, four anthologies of short stories and three other books of miscellaneous nature. He also started his own publishing house called Indian Thought Publication in Mysore.