A Tribute to RK Narayan

During the last spell of 1930 summer--September, on the auspicious day of Vijaydasami, the first line that RK Narayan wrote in a new exercise book was : “It was Monday morning…” As he penned this line, the window of his Chekovesque brain opened and “seemed to hurl into view” a small railway station out of which Malgudi, was born. Narayan planted trees, provided blood and flesh to his characters to trot and prattle, who were also caravaning about the place. Beasts, birds and insects sprang; and the earth has been covered with fresh grass.

In Swami and Friends he brought in the elements of Nature so masterly and the characters so lively, that it would be an exaggeration to claim the whole invention as a literary breakthrough of a class of its own.

Small wonder, then, that Greene hailed Swami and Friends as a work of “remarkable maturity, and of the finest promise…and is the boldest gamble a novelist can take. If he allows himself to take sides, moralise, propaganda, he can easily achieve an extra-literary interest, but if he follows Mr. Narayan’s method, he stakes all on his creative power. His characters must live, or else the book has no claim whatever on our interest.”

He rated Narayan’s novels, “a book in ten thousand…”
It would be erroneous to consider that Narayan’s creative genius was acknowledged instantly. On the contrary, it was rejected by a long-list of English publishers for various reasons. The manuscript which Narayan originally entitled “Swaminathan and Tate” was making several rounds before it had finally been accepted. And that in all probability could had never witnessed the light of the day had not one Krishna Raghavendra Purna’s sojourn to Graham Greene had been success.

Narayan, on the other hand informed Dent, the last of the publishers that in case of unacceptance, the manuscript be returned to Purna's address at Oxford. Prior to this, Purna had been communicated by Narayan that he should take pain to "weigh the manuscript with a stone and drown it in the Thames”. Recall James Joyce’s throwing his manuscript into fire in disgust which was timely salvaged by his wife before it was reduced to ashes.

Instead, Purna dispatched the much tralleved manuscript to Greene. While such hectic activities were taking place in England; in India, Narayan was bidding for a girl in Coimbatore with whom he had fallen in instant love, while she was drawing water from a street tap. Tall and beautiful with striking features, Rajam threw approving glances to young Narayan.

As Susan Ram and N. Ram in their resplendent biography RK Narayan--The Early Years: 1906-1945 described the days that followed : “Departing from convention he had found his own bride, Rajam, and married her in 1934 in the face of a grave astrological hurdle (Mars in the Seventh House, which figures currently in Narayan’s fiction); and in 1936 (June 6) a daughter, Hema was born. The struggling writer found it difficult to make ends meet, although the joint family continued to provide a safety net.”

The passing away of his beloved wife had a devastating effect on Narayan. In his autobiography My Days, the author provided a frost-biting account of his deep melancholic phase which would leave any reader with a heavy heart.

So much so after reading the entire manuscript, Greene wrote a very captivating letter to Narayan on August 1,1935. It follows thus:
"Dear Mr. Narayan Swami,

"My friend Kit Purna sent me your novel the other day to read, and I should like to tell as a fellow novelist how much I admired it. I took the liberty of sending it with a covering letter to a publisher, Hamish Hamilton, and I have heard from him today that he wishes to publish it. You couldn’t think of a better publisher. His is a young firm with a very good literary reputation and his connection with American publishers, Harper’s may make it possible to find a publisher for it easier to place your short stories, for some of which I felt an almost equal admiration. It is a real joy to be of use to a new writer of your quality.
"There are few things I should like to ask you. Have you an objection to a few alterations in the English? Its very good on the whole, but at times the grammar and sense needs tightening. Then it will need a simple and more taking title than the one young have given it. Last as to terms. I am seeing Hamish Hamilton on Tuesday, August 6 to discuss them. You can rely on me to get you the best possible terms, but with a first novel I’m afraid you wont get a large advance or royalties. But if the advance has to be small, I hope and believe that the book will sell well enough to earn you a satisfactory amount in royalties. Of course, the proposed contract will be sent to you for your approval and signature.
"I hope this will be only the first of a long series of books.
"I wonder if you have come a cross the books of my friend Denis Kincaid in India?
"Your sincerely,
Graham Greene."

The same year Swami and Friends was published in by Hamish Hamilton.
Decades later, VS Naipaul, paying tributes to Narayan, wrote, “…in the 1930s before independence, that Narayan had established his fictional world: the small and pacific south Indian town, little man, little schemes, comedy of restricted lives and high philosophical speculation, real power surrounded long ago to the British rulers, who were far away and only dimly perceived.”

Another British novelist who rescued Mulk Raj Anand from being nearly extinct was EM Forster. Perhaps, I could have never written anything about Narayan or Anand without making honourable references to Greene and Forster.
Narayan befittingly expressed his gratitude: "He is the most important person in my life, absolutely central.” At the same time, the critic in Greene would surface with full vigour, which Narayan honestly recounts: “Greene would make some corrections to my writings. He told me-‘You are a careless writer, sometimes you don’t take the trouble to find the right word --you don’t take the trouble to find the right word-you don’t take the trouble to conclude a sentence.”
Perhaps not many may be aware of the fact that the publishers published the author’s name as RJ Narayan instead of RK Narayan on the book jacket! Other writers whose names above him were mentioned : Walter Duranty’s I Write as I Please, Katherine Mayo’s The Face of Mother India, Tatiana Tchernavin’s We, Soviet Women, FL Allen’s The Lord’s of Creation. Narayan Swami and Friends received rave reviews, but commercially it did not bring any dividends to the publisher that is worth mentioning Narayan did not have to look back again.

In terms of having global readership he can be equated with Nirad C Chaudhuri and Raja Rao. Over the years, Narayan prolifically produced a whale of works -- fifteen novels, eight short stories collections, autobiographies in two volumes -- My Days and My Dateless Dairy: An American Journey -- volumes of essays, travelogues, retellings of epics -- Ramayana and the Mahabharata.

By Ashok Patnaik