RK Narayan: The Pride of India

When the pride of Madras, who later became the pride of the country Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami passed away at the age of 94 in 2001, it seemed like his legacy had come to an end. But this great personality has given us an innumerable works to the readers to read and cherish his memories. Over seven decades of literary activity, he had produced fourteen novels, countless essays, and dozens of stories, the majority of his fiction set in a South Indian town that he called Malgudi. His works gave him a lot of awards like Sahithya Academy, Filmfare, Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan and lot more.

As his professional career his personal life wasn’t that great. Had a lot of up’s and down’s. Took an extra year to complete his degree where his father was the professor of the college in Mysore in which he also studied. Did his schooling in the school of Madras (Chennai) where his father was headmaster at. He was one amongst 8 children with 6 brothers and 2 daughters. He initially joined as a school teacher and then had to quit it because his school headmaster to take up job of physical trainer to students. When one day he was at his sister’s place at Madras he fell in love with a girl named as Rajam.

After having a lot of differences between both the families Narayan convinced her father and married her. Rajam died of typhoid in 1939. Her death affected Narayan deeply and he remained depressed for a long time; he was also concerned for their daughter Hema, who was only three years old. After all this he worked hardly in the field of literature only and strengthened himself in financial and literary aspects. He drove Mercedes Benz back then and to visit his daughter who lived in Coimbatore after her wedding. His few works which gave him those prestigious awards were Malgudi days, The English Teacher. Mr. Sampath The Financial Expert, Waiting for the Mahatma, The Man-Eater of Malgudi, A Tiger for Malgudi, Talkative Man, Under the Banyan Tree and Other Stories, A Writer's Nightmare.