Book Review: "My Days"
Having read many of R K Narayan's books & grown up watching the televised version of Malgudi Days, I had long wanted to read his autobiography. I managed to finish "My Days" right after reading R K Laxman's "The Tunnel of Time". It was a treat to know more about the creative and illustrious brothers first-hand from their autobiographies in their own candid writing style.
R K Narayan's evocative prose, gentle humor & vivid descriptions make the book an engrossing read. It is like time-travelling with him into his past. As a master story teller, R K Narayan can write about even the most mundane of things and make it entertaining and interesting with his unique perspective.
R. K. Narayan was born in Madras in 1906 & spent his early childhood in the care of his maternal grandmother as his father's school headmaster job entailed frequent transfers. Growing up in a academically inclined but a large middle class family (with seven siblings), he didn't have it easy.
Next to religion, education was the most compulsive force in a family like ours. My outlook on education never fitted in with the accepted code at home. I instinctively rejected both education and examinations, with their unwarranted seriousness and esoteric suggestions. Since revolt was unpractical I went through it all without conviction, enthusiasm, or any sort of distinction
He failed in English in the university entrance examination.
I failed so miserably and completely that everyone wondered if I was literate at all. My father, in spite of his strict attitudes in school matters, had one very pleasant quality—he never bothered about the examination results. He always displayed sympathy for a fallen candidate; he had no faith in the examination-system at all. But even he was forced to exclaim in surprise, “Stupid fellow, you have failed in English! Why?”
He read voraciously though. Being the headmaster’s son, he had extraordinary privileges in the school library. His father allowed him early access to magazines from every part of the world as they arrived first at the headmaster's home before they reached the school’s reading-room table. These books and magazines provided inspiration for the budding writer.
My outlook on education has not really improved with the years....I was opposed to the system of being prescribed a set of books by an anonymous soulless body of text book-prescribers, and of being stamped good or bad as a result of such studies....I liked to be free to read what I pleased and not be examined at all.
He attained a belated graduation in 1930 from Maharaja’s College, Mysore. Around this time, he started writing his first novel about a character named Swami growing up in the imaginary town of Malgudi. Many of his future novels and short stories drawn from his own life experiences are centered around Malgudi and its people.
He got married in 1933 while he didn't yet have a stable job. He tried to convince his future father-in-law that he had written a paid piece for the prestigious Punch, "How to Write an Indian Novel" and could earn enough in the future freelance-writing for London magazines and newspapers and from his novels.
His father did not believe in savings, property and such things. So it fell on him & his elder brother to manage household expenses when he passed away. After being rejected by several publishers in England, a friend managed to get a glowing recommendation from Graham Greene for his first novel "Swami and Friends". It was published in 1935. Even after getting three of his novels published, he had to struggle with arranging for family finances.
The untimely death of his beloved wife in 1939 left him heart-broken. He never remarried and was devoted to raising their daughter Hema, who was only three years old at that time. He lived till the ripe age of 94, writing numerous novels, short stories and non-fiction. He achieved worldwide fame and won many awards including Sahitya Akademi Award, the Padma Bhushan (1964) and the Padma Vibhushan (2000) in India.
The drab cover of the Centenary Edition of this enjoyable book doesn't do justice to the rich content that's inside but may ensure no one steals it.
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