R. K. Narayan

Author and historian Urvashi Butalia tells of the life and words of one of India’s most-beloved writers.

- Urvashi Butalia

RASIPURAM Krishanswami Iyer Narayanswami is not a name that is particularly well known in the literary world. Yet it belongs to one of India’s best known writers, more commonly known as R.K. Narayan, the creator of Malgudi, a fictional South Indian town that has endeared itself to thousands of readers across the world. In Malgudi, the stories are simple: children play, they go to school, marriages are arranged, there’s a boy called Swami, there are man-eating tigers and much more. But the simplicity, a mark of all major writers, is deceptive, for Malgudi is a mirror of life, its little stories filled with wisdom, compassion and humour.

Narayan is best known for the creation of Malgudi, which featured in many of his writings, and although his oeuvre of novels, short stories, essays and more was quite formidable, somehow Malgudi and its characters were so precious to young and old alike that the stories continue to be read and reread.

The son of a school headmaster in Chennai (then Madras), Narayan studied for some years at his father’s school. Because his father had to travel for his job, it was Narayan’s grandmother who looked after him. At her home, he made friends with a peacock and a monkey! From his grandmother, the young Narayan learned Sanskrit and music, as also arithmetic and mythology.