| KNOW YOUR AUTHORLITERATUREbases itself on an imagined visit to Malgudi
by Gandhi. A fairly traditional man himself
(his daughter had a marriage arranged
by him, and his own marriage, though
a love marriage, was complete with all the
rites and rituals of a traditional ceremony),
he wrote about the horoscope matching that
happens in Hindu marriages. The Financial
Export, considered one of his best works,
focuses on the life of Margayya, a real-life
character who was supposed to be a financial
expert. Yet, although his works began
to focus on wider social realities, their focus
still remains small and individual, something
that increasingly became Narayan’s strength.And on to other writings
and preoccupations...
Every now and again,
Narayan also wrote
essays, which were
collected in a
volume called
Next Sunday.Around the 1960s, he began once again to
travel, and went to the USA and Australia
where he lectured on Indian literature. And
he expanded his body
of writing, doing long pieces also for
The Hindu and literary magazines overseas.
The early teachings on mythology, given
by his grandmother, stood him in good stead
when he published Gods, Demons and Others,
a collection of stories on the Hindu epics.
Narayan had an equally famous brother,
R.K. Laxman, the cartoonist. The two often
worked together with one illustrating
the other’s work. Other novels came –
The Vendor of Sweets, The Painter of Signs,
and translations of the Kamba Ramayana and,
later, the Mahabharata. He continued to take
on assignments, even writing a book on
Karnataka for the tourism authorities
in the state. He continued to write,
and several novels, including
A Tiger for Malgudi, Talkative Man,
Malgudi Days, and more.
In later life, he came to
be interested in agriculture
and began to farm. Every
evening, he would sit with
his friend, N. Ram, the editor
of The Hindu, and talk about
all sorts of things. Narayan
also sat on a committee chaired
by Prof. Yash Pal that created
the most radical change in
textbooks in the Indian
education system.When the honours began coming, they did
not stop. He received honorary degrees,
prizes for his work, recognition from the
Indian government, a nomination to the
upper house of Parliament, the Rajya Sabha.
In many ways, Narayan endeared himself not
only to his readers, but to a range of people
including politicians, editors, journalists.
He was reclusive, living in his large house
and writing there, he did not appear in the
media much, nor attend literature festivals
and other book events. Narayan was also
a family man, and his daughter and grand
daughter were important to him. It was
his grand daughter, Minnie, who looked
after him when he was ill. When he died
on 13 May 2001, the sense of loss and
tragedy was not limited to Mysore and
Coimbatore but spread across
the world. India had lost one of
its most important writers, but
Narayan’s death was much more
than a loss to India, it was a loss
to the world.Urvashi Butalia is the director
and co-founder of Kali Women, India’s
first feminist publishing house. A
recipient of the Padma Shri award, she is
a historian whose research focuses on the
Partition and oral histories. Her book, The
Other Side of Silence, collates the tales of
the survivors of the Partition.88 February 2017