CHAPTER – III

THE CRITICAL STUDY OF SWAMI AND FRIENDS

3.1 Introduction

The present chapter deals with the critical study of the novel Swami and Friends of R.K.
Narayan. In the present chapter the theme, plot, setting, characters, social values, cultural values
and philosophical values as depicted by Narayan in his present novel are critically discussed.
Swami and Friends is the first novel of Narayan published in 1935. This is really creditable for a
first attempt. But, unfortunately, in the forties, even the early fifties, efforts were made to prevent
its being prescribed as a text book in schools and colleges of South India.

The novel is thoroughly autobiographical; it owes much of its realism and authenticity to
the fact that it is rooted in Narayan’s personal experience as a boy at school. The
autobiographical element is unmistakable. Swami’s experiences in the Albert Mission School
seem to be based on Narayan’s own experiences as a school boy. Indeed Swami is only the
second half of Narayan’s original name, Narayanaswami, and the shortened form “Swami” was
adopted out of deference to the novelist’s publishers, “not wanting the novel to be confused with
an autobiography”. Like Wordsworth, Narayan is at his best when he recalls his childhood and
boyhood scenes, as he has done in the present novel. Most of us forget that grand period. But
with R.K. Narayan it has always been there. It is a time at which the colours of things are
different, their depths greater, their magnitude greater, a most balanced and joyous condition of
life. It is a natural state of joy over nothing in particular.

3.2 The Summary of the Novel: Swami and Friends

 The present novel is a divided into 19 chapters. From the beginning to the last the story is
eye catching and interesting. This is the story of four friends; Swami, Mani, Shankar and
Samuel.

The story opens with the first chapter titled as Monday Morning. The first chapter of the
novel is in the nature of an exposition or introduction. We are introduced to Swaminathan or
Swami, the child-hero of the novel, to his school, The Albert Mission School, to his teachers and
to his friends. The action takes place in the town named Malgudi, situated on the bank of the
river Sarayu. The river has a bridge over it, and it is visible with the trains passing over it, from
the windows of the school.

Swami is a student of the First Form (Section A). It is Monday morning, and Swami hates
Mondays, for it means activity, discipline and work, after the holiday he has enjoyed on Saturday
and Sunday. As Swami sits on the table in his ‘room’ - which is merely a table in the dressing-
room of his father - he finds that he has a lot of home work to do, and only two hours for doing
it. He feels bored and tired, and is in no mood for work.

He reaches the class in time, and we are introduced to the fire-eyed Vedanayagan, the
class-teacher and also arithmetic teacher. Swami does not like him and we get a taste of
Narayan’s verbal humour. All the sums of Swami are wrong, they are crossed out, the remark
‘very bad’ is given and he is very severely pinched over his left ear, and told to go back to his
seat. Then comes the history period, and the teacher is Dr. Pillai. His method of teaching is
interesting, but it does not conform to any known principles of education. It is followed by the
scripture period and the teacher, Ebenezar, is a fanatic Christian. He constantly criticises and
abuses Hindu Gods who, for him, are merely so many pieces of stone. When Swami puts a
question, his ear is severely pulled and pinched. Swami complains to his father who writes a long
letter to the Headmaster asking him to take action against the teacher, otherwise Hindu boys will
be withdrawn from the school and the matter referred to higher authorities. But nothing comes
out of it, except the reprimand to Swami from the Headmaster, who is there to take care of the
boys. He tells Swami that he must come to him if he wants any help, before he goes to his father.
Swaminathan furtively glances at Ebenezar, who writhed in his chair. The principal scolds
swami for the matter of the complaint. Swami is not a good student but his life at school is not
entirely unhappy for he has four good friends. We get detailed pen-portraits of these friends. One
of them is Somu, the monitor of the class. He tried to settle down his business with confidence
and calmness. He was very frank with his teachers and no teachers ever dare to ask any question
to him in the class and there was rumour that only headmaster could scold him if he was in fault.
He was considered as an elder of his class, adds Narayan in a humorous vein. Then there is
Mani, the Mighty-Good For-Nothing. He towers head and shoulders above the other boys of the
class, and is feared and admired by all. He is a sort of bully, and says that his strength lies in the
two clubs he has at home, and with which he can easily break the neck of those who offend him.
Swaminathan was proud of his friendship. While others crouched in awe, he could address him
as ‘Mani’ with gusto and pat him on the back familiarly.

The third friend is Shanker, the most brilliant boy of the class. He gets marks as high as
ninety per cent, and can answer any questions that are put to him. But there were those who felt
that he got such high marks by flattering the teachers, and by doing menial work for them. But
Swami has no doubts about his ability, and considers him to be a marvel. He could speak to the
teachers in English in the open class. He knew the names of all the rivers, mountains, and
countries in the world. He could repeat history in his sleep. Grammar was child’s play to him.
His face was radiant with intelligence. Swami’s fourth friend is Samel, called the Pea, because of
his small size. There is nothing uncommon about him, for he is neither a good student, nor
physically remarkable. Here, the first chapter is over.

The second chapter titled as Rajam and Mani begins with a few lines regarding Malgudi
which forms the setting to most of the novels of R.K. Narayan. In the evenings, crowds gathered
on the sand banks of the river. On this particular evening, Swami and Mani also set there with
their feet dangling in the river. A new student had come to the class, he appeared to be a rival to
the prestige and authority of Mani, who was much annoyed and was thinking of some way of
getting rid of this menace that had come into his life. He intended to bundle him up into the river,
and warned Swami not to try to be friendly with him. Of course, Swami protested that he could
not even dream of such a thing, for Mani was his best friend, he had always been his guide and
protector and this Rajam was no match to him. But in his heart of hearts, Swami admired Rajam
and was much impressed by his carefree conduct and manners, and by his brilliance as a student.
Even on the very first day, Rajam had much impressed him by his non-chalance. He dressed very
well. He was the only boy in the class who wore socks and shoes, fur cap and tie, and a
wonderful coat and knickers. He came to the school in a car. He was a very good student too.
From his clear cut profile he had been considered as a European who had good command over
English language and it had seemed that he might had come from English medium school
somewhere from Madras. In his manner to Mani, he assumed a certain non-chalance to which
Mani was not accustomed. Mani and Rajam are on the fierce quarrel. That is why Mani wanted
to bundle him into the river or to crack his shoulders with his club. Swami warned him to be
careful for his father was the Superintendent of Police, and the police are an awful lot. But Mani
did not care for all this and was determined to put the vile upstart down. So one day, as Swami
set between Mani and Rajam on one of the back benches of the class, Swami acted as the cord of
communication between the two. First of all, Mani passed oh some papers to Rajam with
insulting words, but Rajam did not reply. He crumpled the letters and threw them down. This
irritated Mani, and the teacher must have observed that Swami was inattentive. So some question
was put to him, and when he could not answer it he was asked to stand on the bench for the rest
of the period. As soon as the day’s work was over, the three went to a secluded spot to settle
matters. Swami again acted as “the cord of communication”, and the following dialogue took
place:

“Mani faced Swaminathan and asked, “Are you a man?”

Swaminathan turned to Rajam and repeated, “Are you a
man?” Rajam flared up and shouted, “Which dog doubts
it?” Swaminathan turned to Mani and said ferociously,
“Which dirty dog doubts it?”

“Have you the courage to prove that you are a man?”

asked Mani.
 Swaminathan turned to Rajam and repeated it.

“How”?

“How?” repeated Swaminathan to Mani.

“Meet me at the river, near Nallappa’s Grove, tomorrow

evening.”

“- Near Nallappa’s Grove”, Swaminathan was pleased to

eacho.

“What for?” asked Rajam.

“To see if you can break my head.”

“Oh, to pieces”, said Rajam (Narayan: 2010,18)

Swaminathan’s role as a mediater became so fast that before he transmitted Mani’s message to
Rajam, Rajam replied to Swaminathan. Rajam shouted in left ear and Mani shouted in right ear
of Swaminathan. He became restless and could not understand what to do and what not to do. It
is an extremely amusing situation. It is to be noted that R.K. Narayan’s humour here is farcical
and is conducive to loud laughter. It was at last agreed that they would meet the next evening on
the banks of the river near Nallappa’s Grove. Accordingly, Mani came to the place with his
clubs, and Rajam came there with his air gun. When Mani pointed out that he should not have
brought the gun as it was to be a hand-to-hand fight, Rajam pointed out that he ought not to have
brought his clubs. Both the air gun and the clubs were then dispensed with, the complaints which
they had against each other were re-counted and hotly denied. The upshot was that the two
suddenly decided to be friends, quite against the expectations of the readers. This conclusion was
much to the relief of Swami, for he admired Rajam and wanted to be friends with him. As a sign
of goodwill, Rajam offered some biscuits, and Mani gladly accepted them.

Though the third chapter is entitled Swami’s grandmother, actually only the first part of it
is devoted to the grandmother. The second part deals with Swami’s father, and the third one is
devoted to the visit of Swami and Mani to the house of Rajam. The narration is enlivened from
time to time by Narayan’s verbal humour.

Swami’s grandmother’s room was not much ventilated and there was a passage between
the dining room and front hall. She lived her remaining life with all these belongings. With the
depiction of her bed the novelist has made his readers laugh. In her room she had three bed
sheets, five carpets, five cushions, one jute fiber square box and small wooden box in which
copper coinscloves, cardamoms and areca nut.

She is rather garrulous and likes to talk at length about events in the distant past, the
memories of which crowd in upon her and make her discourse at length. Thus one night as
Swami tries to tell her about Rajam and his exploits, she gives him little chance to talk, but
herself begins to talk incoherently about her own past. Her narration is often inaccurate, and
confused and rambling. For example, when Swami tells her that Rajam’s father is the SSP of
Police, she begins at once to talk about her own husband who was a powerful magistrate and the
police trembled before him, and dacoits ran away in fear. When Swami tells her that Rajam got
90% in mathematics, she is reminded of her own husband who got even 200% marks in the
subject. Swami is much annoyed at her garrulity, but the readers are much amused, particularly
when she tells him of the gold medal which was awarded to him, which she used as a pendent,
and which was later on turned into thin gold bangles by his aunt, “the greatest fool in the
family”.

Next, Swami begins to narrate the adventure of Rajam with two tigers one of whom was
shot down by the brave boy. The grandmother is all admiration for Swami’s hero. Swami,
however, doubts that she was praising Rajam only to please him, otherwise she did not believe in
the story; for the very next moment she started narrating the story of Harishchandra who suffered
so much only because he always remained true to his words. In the midst of the story, Swami
went to sleep, and adds the novelist humorously, “her narration was punctuated with his
rhythmic snoring”. Time passed, and it was Saturday afternoon. As Sundays and Saturdays came
so rarely Swami did not like to waste them at home. He was eager to go off to his friends, and
impatiently waited for the departure of his father for his office. He pretended to read but in
reality watched closely every detail of his preparation to go to his office. He watched him as he
tied his turban, took his watch, his snuffbox, his handkerchief and his umbrella. He went out but
was called in by the mother to the great annoyance of Swami, who had almost stood up to go out.
She wanted some money, and the father returned to give it to her, and then went out a second
time. As soon as he was gone, Swami also began to move out. To her mother, who wished that
he should obey his father and stay at home, he replied that he was going to his drawing teacher.
He had called him, so he must go, otherwise he would fail in the subject.

First Swami went to Mani, and then the two together went to Rajam. A policeman tried to
stop them, but when they told him that Rajam was waiting for them, he at once became very
polite and friendly. They were much amazed to see the large room of Rajam with his books
arranged neatly on a big table, with a time-piece. Rajam kept them waiting for a few minutes -
for he had seen his father doing so - and then came to them. He showed them his almirah full of
toys. There were toys such as motors, trains, mechanical marvels, picture books and a magic
lantern with slides. Among all these toys and things Mani was interested in an air gun which was
placed in a corner. Moreover Rajam permitted all his friends to plays with the toys and things
whichever they wanted. Swaminathan played with the engine and Mani played with air gun and
gave one after another shoot till got tired.

Next, coffee with some snacks was brought for them by the cook. Rajam tried to snub
him in order to impress his friends with the power and authority he had. But the cook was more
than a match for him. First he tried to argue with Rajam, and then walked off with the snacks
telling him to come to the kitchen if he wanted the eatables. The readers cannot help laughing at
the discomfiture of poor Rajam. He had to go to the kitchen and bring in the snacks and the
coffee himself. In order to hide his humiliation, he told his friends that he kicked the cook for his
impertinence, and at the time he was lying unconscious in the kitchen.

The forth chapter entitled as What Is a Tail deals with Swami’s trouble at school. It is in a
humorous vein, and it also reveals Narayan’s full command over child-psychology. Swami’s
world is looked at from his point of view, and his boyish joys and sorrows have been feelingly
and convincingly rendered. Swami’s troubles arose from the fact of his friendship and admiration
for Rajam. He was full of admiration for Rajam, he was his hero and he himself was his devoted
follower. The result was that his former friends - Somu, Shanker and the Pea - began to cut him
off, and nicknamed him ‘the tail’, or to be more precise “Rajam’s tail”. This became clear on one
particular Friday, when the geography period was vacant, and Swami searched for his friends
through the school. When at last he stumbled upon them, he found that their behaviour had
changed. None of them was his former genial self. He wanted to participate in the game that was
going on, but he was neither welcomed nor allowed to participate in the game. It was a rude
shock for Swami, the worst of his life. Rather they talked about the tail and tried to pull Swami’s
leg.

Swami sensed that the unpleasant references were to himself, that somehow or the other
it was he who was being referred to as ‘the tail’. After the school, as he was walking to his home
with a troubled heart, he came across Somu, who told him frankly that he was the tail, “Rajam’s
tail”, and that perhaps, his former friends were no longer good enough for him. With these
words, he turned his face and moved off.

Sick at heart, poor Swami reached home. He was restless and ill at ease, and tried to
forget his boyish troubles by concentrating his attention on objects floating in an over-flowing
drain outside his house. His reactions and his thoughts have been given by the novelist in a
humorous vein. For example, he makes a paper boat, puts an ant in jt as its passenger and closely
watches its movements with boyish curiosity and pleasure: “He watched in rapture its quick
motion. He held his breath when the boat with its cargo neared a danger zone formed by stuck-up
bits of straw and other odds and ends. The boat made a beautiful swerve to the right and avoided
destruction. It went on and on. It neared a fatal spot where the waters were swirling round and
round in eddies. Swaminathan was certain that his boat was nearing its last moment. He had no
doubt that it was going to be drawn right to the bottom of the circling eddies. The boat whirled
madly round, shaking and swaying and quivering. Providentially a fresh supply of water from the
kitchen in the neighbour’s house pushed it from behind out of danger. But it rushed on at a
fearful speed, and Swaminathan felt that it was going to turn turtle. Presently it calmed, and
resumed a normal speed. But when it passed under a tree, a thick dry leaf fell down and upset it.
Swaminathan ran frantically to the spot to see if he could save at least the ant. He peered long
into the water, but there was no sign of the ant. The boat and its cargo were wrecked beyond
recovery. He took a pinch of earth, uttered a prayer for the soul of the ant, and dropped it into the
gutter”. The entire episode is humorous in the extreme.

Swami felt most unhappy and wretched at school, for not only did his former friends shun
his company, they were actually hostile to him and treated him as his enemy. All this was most
painful for poor Swami, but he could not help it. He wanted to talk to them and out jokes with
them as usual, but it was no longer possible. One day, he was loitering about in the compound,
and soon he had the uncomfortable feeling that he was being followed by his three former
friends. It was very awkward for him to have eyes behind his ears. He knew that he was being
observed by his followers. He felt that his friends were laughing at him because he thought that
he wrongly and funnily carried his books. He could not match his eyes with his friends. Though
he felt itching on his nape, could not succeed in his motive and wanted to escape on the spot but
he did not want to be considered as a coward. So he applied a new trick. He stopped, turned this
way and that, as if looking for something, and then cried aloud:

Oh, I have left my notebook somewhere’, raised his hand

and was off from the spot like a stag (Narayan: 2010, 39).

It is in this way that the boyhood world comes to life in the hands of Narayan.

The fifth chapter entitled as Father’s Room is conveniently divided into three parts. The
first part deals with Swami’s preparations for the visit of Rajam, the second part gives an account
of the visit itself, and the third part deals with the fight between Somu and Mani.

It was Saturday and Rajam was to visit Swami in the afternoon. Swami wanted to create a
good impression on his friend who was a V.I.P., the son of a Superintendent of Police. He first
cleaned his table and arranged his books properly. Then he talked to his Granny. She was too
old, and so he wanted that she should not come in when Rajam was with him. He told her so
quite frankly, even though it must have been rather painful for her. Next, he went to his mother,
and suggested that she should prepare something nice and sweet for the afternoon tea. The cook
also should change his dirty dhoti, and put on a clean shirt and dhoti. Then he went to his father,
of whom he was a little afraid, and requested him to allow him the use of his room for Rajam’s
visit in the afternoon. To his great surprise and pleasure, his father agreed. Everything was going
on smoothly, and he looked forward to the pleasure of entertaining his friend at his home.

During Rajam’s visit everything went on smoothly. They were together for three hours
and talked on a number of subjects as trains, tiger-hunting, police, ghosts, their friends and their
teachers. The snacks were wonderful, and the coffee was really good. Only the cook did not
change his dhoti, and appeared before Swami’s hero, in the same old dhoti. Rajam, too, put some
awkward questions about his room. On this question Swami shyly answered that it was his room
where they stood. Rajam could not accept Swami’s answer and again he put another question
with doubt that whether he read such law books and again he further put another question
regarding his books. Swami was put in dilemma by Rajam’s questions. Hardly he had answered
these questions and answered that when Swami was out of his room his father met his clients.

This again was something tactless to say. His grandmother was not sleeping, as Swami
had hoped. She was sitting in her bed, and she told Rajam that she was old and blind, and could
not see his face well. She talked to Rajam. Swami was angry, for he thought she should not have
talked such nonsense. But she stroked Rajam’s hair, asked him a number of questions about his
mother and his brothers and sisters. Rajam also delighted her much by telling her about Madras,
and its cinemas, trains and buses. In this way, the visit ended on a happy note.

The happy visit of Rajam was followed on the next Monday, by a fierce fight between
Somu and Mani. Somebody had written ‘Tail’ on the blackboard in huge letters. Swami
suspected that the Pea and Shankar had done it. So he slapped them on the face. Pandemonium
broke out in the class, with Shankar, Pea and Swami rolling over and over and tearing each
others hair, faces and clothes. The fight stopped for a moment when the teacher entered. But a
moment later they left the class, to fight it out in the fields adjoining the school. Swami told his
friends that Pea and Shankar wrote the ‘tail’ on the blackboard, and that they called him
“Rajam’s tail”. Somu sided with Shankar and Pea, and Mani stood up for Swami. A fierce fight
between Mani and Somu followed. The fighting was so violent and deadly, that the three
youngsters thought that the two would murder each other. In great panic they rushed to the
headmaster and told him that two murders were being committed in the school-field. The
headmaster came to the spot, and easily parted the two boys and thus put an end to the fight.
Swami was much surprised at this, for he had thought that Mani and Somu were very physically
strong that he had ever met.

The sixth chapter A Friend in Need talks about the friends. Three weeks passed. Then one
afternoon Swami and Mani went on a visit to Rajam’s house. Rajam had told them that he would
have some surprise for them. As they went along, they discussed among themselves as to what
that surprise could be. Reaching Rajam’s residence, the two friends jumped over the boundary
wall. A servant came running towards them. He asked,

‘Why did you climb the wall?’

‘Is the wall your property?’ Mani asked and burst into
laughter.

‘But if you had broken your ribs—’ the servant began.

‘What is that to you ? Your ribs are safe, are they not ?’
Swaminathan asked ungraciously and laughed.

‘And just a word more’, Mani said, ‘do you happen to be

by any chance the Police Superintendent’s son ?’

‘No, no’, replied the servant.

‘Very well then’, replied Mani, ‘we have come to see and
talk to the Police Superintendent’s son.’ The servant beat a
hasty retreat (Narayan: 2010, 49).

The readers are much amused at the discomfiture of the servant at the hands of the two
youngsters. They knocked at the door of Rajam’s room and as soon as he opened the door, they
pretended to be a blind kitten and a blind puppy and crawled into the room as such. As they had
closed their eyes, they did not see that Somu, Shanker, and Pea were there. Indeed, they touched
and fondled their feet, and when they did open their eyes they saw that they had touched the feet
of Somu, Shanker and the Pea. Their surprise and discomfiture can better be imagined than
described. The whole incident is highly entertaining.

They were angry with Rajam, for they thought he had played a dirty trick on them. But
Rajam soon pacified them by praising their performance as the kitten and the puppy. He men
proceeded to give them a long lecture on the value of friendship, and the infinite torture to which
those who harbour enmity are subjected in Hell. So vivid and eloquent, was he, that the boys
were terrified. In the end, he offered them handsome gifts, if they would become friends and give
up their hostility. The gifts were attractive, they were already terrified, and so the upshot was that
they soon shook hands and left as very good friends.

The seventh chapter entitled as A New Arrival deals with the birth of a baby - Swami’s
brother - and vividly and graphically renders the suspense and the excitement of the moment.
The incident is looked at from the boy’s point of view, and there is ample of delicious humour.

Mother was in bed for the last two days, she could not come to the kitchen and Swami
felt most uncomfortable without her. She was lying dishevelled and pale on her bed, and Swami
could not endure her embraces. At night he was allowed to sleep with Granny. He felt quite cosy,
but before he eventually fell asleep, he was conscious of the strange things that were going on.
There was the lady-doctor who ordered about as if it were her own house. She commanded even
his father for many things such as hot water, medicine, clothes etc. Swami could not understand
the entire situation. Grandmother meanwhile kept inquiring from everybody those who were
present there but no one replied her.

Next morning at school, Swami told the Pea of the arrival of his new baby brother. He
did not like him, for he looked so very funny. The readers enjoy the humour of it.

Before the Examinations is the eighth chapter which paints the atmosphere of the
examination. Six months had passed since the arrival of the new brother. It was the month of
April, just two weeks before the annual exams. Swami’s father, quite naturally, now wanted that
his son should devote more time to his studies and often rebuked him when he saw the boy
wasting his time. Swami thought he was changing and growing more fussy and difficult every
day. However, his words had some effect on his son when he warned him that, if he failed, his
juniors would become his classmates, and his friends would become his seniors, and would no
longer like to mix up with him.

At school also everybody seemed “to be overwhelmed by the thought of the

examinations.” His friends hardly exchanged even a few words with him, they were so busy with
their preparations. Somehow or the other, the boys were under the impression that the school
clerk knew all about the question papers and he could help them a lot. So one day, Mani visited
him with a gift of brinjals. The clerk was pleased, welcomed Mani, and talked a great deal about
various matters. When he did not come to the point, Mani asked him bluntly to tell him a few
important questions. The clerk did not refuse but told him vaguely that it is good to prepare
maps, to solve five problems every day for Maths, and as regards English, there is nothing to
worry about if he has read all the lessons. Mani comes away fully satisfied, and readers enjoy the
fun of it.

Mani felt important as one who could provide much valuable information to others. He
wanted to share his knowledge with Swami. So one day as they were going home, Mani took
him into confidence and told him that last evening he prepared a number of maps, and they may
be in the question paper. He warned Swami not to divulge the information to anyone else, and
Swami was much impressed by his seriousness.

Reaching home, Mani felt dull and bored. There was none to talk to because mother was
not present at the home and grandmother was not interested to talk because of her ill mood
during that time. In disgust, he went to the cradle. The baby had grown up and looked so sweet
and charming; and Swami liked to play with him. But now he, too, was asleep, and so Swami
turned away in disgust. He wanted to go out to his friends but his father had strictly ordered him
not to go out in the evening till the exams were over. Of course, after that he would be free to
pass his time in the way he liked. So, he sat at the table and drew a map of Europe as best as he
could. Swami’s father when returned at home pleased to find Swami because he was reading.
 Only two days were left for the commencement of the exams. Swami prepared a list of
his needs for the exams. He thought that the list was not comprehensive enough, but his father,
who was not in the right mood that evening, was furious, at the sight of it. He thought all that
was not needed, and it was sheer wastage. However, he told Swami to take from him the most
essential items: the other items in his view were not needed at all. He should be more
economical, for rupees, annas and paisas did not drop from the sky. It was a great
disappointment to Swami.

School Breaks Up is the ninth chapter which deals with the school vacation days. It was
the last day of the examinations. Swami came out of the examination hall twenty minutes earlier.
His friends were still at work, and so Swami felt more uneasy and restless. He felt it was a
mistake to have come out so early. He should have waited till the others, too, had finished and
were ready to come out with him. But then he had answered the last question - the moral of the
lion and the Brahmin story- in one line, “love of gold bangle costs one’s life” at four thirty, then
had revised his answers for ten minutes and had then come out feeling thoroughly bored and
exhausted.

The bell rang at exact five. Time was over, and the boys poured out into the school
compound. It was all noise and excitement. They consulted each other as to the right answers, in
order to make an assessment of their own performance. There was much laughing and talking
too, and much witticism, in the exchange with the teacher Ebenezar. Al the last day of the
vacation all the students and teachers were in good and light mood. Ebenezar in a funny mood
asked Mani that how he would be going to pass his vacation and he replied that he would enjoy
his vacation by sleeping. Further he asked whether there would be any improvement in your
study and he replied laughingly that it would be only possible if teacher would replace his brain
with Sanker’s . A great roar of laughter followed this. There would have been roars of laughter at
anything; the mood was such. In sheer joy the drawing master was bringing down his cane on a
row of feet because, he said, he saw some toes growing to an abnormal length.

Then the Headmaster came out and addressed the students. He declared that academic
work of the school would be remain closed till the 19th of June and would resume the academic
works on the 20th. of June. They should read storybooks in the vacation, and glance through the
prescribed textbooks for the next class, to which he hoped, most of them would be promoted. It
was followed by a short prayer, and then the boys were told to disperse.

At the gate, Mani began snatching ink-bottles and pens from all and sundry and breaking
them. Swami, too, joined him. It was great fun. They poured ink on each other’s faces, and
laughed loudly as they did so. The fun went on till the school peon Saligram came out with his
stick and separated all the students.

The tenth chapter entitled as The Coachman’s Son deals with the story of son of
coachman. Above everything else, Swami desired to get a hoop. A cycle wheel with no tyre and
tubes, and unattached to any cycle, seemed to him to be the most wonderful thing to possess. He
imagined that he could perform wonders of all sorts with it. In order to give us an idea of
Swami’s passion for the hoop, and the way in which his imagination was excited by the very
thought of it, the novelist has placed us within his consciousness and given us a peep into his
soul: “He could not set his eyes on a decent bicycle without his imagination running riot over its
wheels. He dreamt one night that he crossed the Sarayu near Nallappa’s Grove ‘on’ his wheel. It
was a vivid dream: the steel wheel crunched on the sandy bed of the river as it struggled and
heaved across. It became a sort of horse when it reached the other bank. It went back home in
one leap, took him to the kitchen, and then to his bed, and lay down beside him. This was
fantastic; but the early part of the dream was real enough. It nearly maddened him to wake to a
hoopless morning.

Swami made frantic efforts to get a hoop. He took a coachman into his confidence. The
coachman told him that he had some magic herbs and with their help he could transform six
paise into six rupees, which would suffice to get a hoop. But he must have the six paise
immediately, for then he would be out with his master for weeks together. Swami was taken in
by his eloquence and persuasion and made hectic efforts to get six paise. His granny and mother
had no money at all, father rejected the request in a second. Swami searched his almirah but
there was no concealed money there. Then he put two pebbles in a cardboard box, covered them
with some grass, placed the box on the shrine before the gods and performed pooja: He closed
his eyes and muttered:

Oh Sri Rama, Thou hast slain Ravana though he had ten

heads, can’t you give me six paise? If I give you the six
paise now, when will you give me the hoop? I wish you
would tell me what that herb is Mani, shall I tell you the
secret of getting a hoop? Oh, Rama give me six paise and I
will give up biting my thumb for a year (Narayan: 2010,
80).

He could not concentrate, his thoughts wandered, and he was incoherent. All the same, it gives
us an idea of his intense yearning for the hoop and his anguish. The gods did not bless him, the
pebbles remained untransformed, and ultimately he buried the box reverently at the root of a
banana tree. Then he approached Mani for the loan of six paise. At the time, Mani’s uncle was
on a visit, and it was he who opened the door to Swami. He had a formidable appearance and
Mani was terrified. He wanted to go back, but the uncle asked him to go in and talk to his friend.
Swami explained matters to Mani and asked him to arrange for six paise, which he urgently
needed. But Mani had no money of his own at the time. At Swami’s suggestion they looked for
the money in the uncle’s box, and it was probably in this way that the money was arranged for
and duly paid to the coachman.

Two weeks passed and nothing came out of the efforts of the coachman. Swami realised
that he had been cheated. So he approached Rajam and requested him to arrange for a policeman.
He complained to his friend that a cunning boy had badly cheated and robbed him completely.
He lived in Malgudi and he was a coachman. He further complained that whenever he met
coachman he denied recognising him. Swami further said that if he visited his home, the member
of the family told him that he was not present. The coachman had also warned him that if he
would come again he would unchain his dog and would kill him.

Continuing his tale of woe, he added that the coachman had asked him for six paise and had
promised him to offer him the silver coins in two days and after four days, he again demanded
for more six paise for collecting herb to make twelve paise. Swami gave him another six paise
but when he demanded his money back, the coachmen had made any excuse and sent him back.
Further, he complained that the coachman behaved very rudely with him.

The tale of woe had its due effect, and a plan of action was formed. Mani would pretend
to befriend the coachman’s son, and so kidnap him. Swami’s role was limited to pointing out the
son to him. So the two went to the coachman’s house. Swami was afraid, and as they went along,
Swami tried that the whole episode should end, and they should turn back. But Mani refused to
do so, and insisted that he would carry out the plan of action they had formed.

On reaching the house, Mani began to abuse and threatened Swami. He called him a
cheat and a rascal and hearing the noise a large crowd collected around them. His friend had
turned against him, and talked to the coachman’s son as to a close friend. When Mani told him
that he had been cheated of two annas by the rascal (Swami) the coachman’s son suggested that
he must be sent to jail. But he was afraid of the police and so refused to go with Mani to call a
policeman.

Then Mani tried to tempt him by showing him a top and telling him that he had a much
larger top at home, and he would give it to him, if only he would come with him. The boy said he
had no objection but first he wanted to see the top which Mani had with him. As soon as he had
the top in his hands, he ran away with it and in the twinkling of an eye disappeared in his hovel.
They knocked at the door but to no avail. Next, some dogs were let loose on them, and then they
ran in fear of their lives.

In Father’s Presence is the eleventh chapter of the novel. During summers it was very
hot in Malgudi. But the summer sun which kept people inside their homes, made Swami, Mani
and Rajam loath to remain under a roof. Noons and afternoons were the most pleasant time for
them, and hence on the afternoon in question we find them seated on a small culvert half a mile
outside the municipal limits. The road was deserted, only a trickle flowed under the culvert, the
fields were brown with stubble, the sun was scorching, but the three friends felt quite
comfortable. Mani was apologetic regarding the rough handling he had given to Swami to dupe
the coachman’s son, and the two friends were on good terms once again, Rajam too, seemed to
be fully satisfied with the explanation of Mani.

Just then a bullock-cart, driven by a boy, came along the deserted road. The three friends
decided to have some fun. They stopped the cart, issued an order to get down the boy, and
informed him that they were the police. Further, they informed him that the pool was very weak
so his heavy cart could not go on it and they asked for the pass from the cart boy. The boy was
frightened because he did not have any pass with him and began to beg and prayed to them to let
him go. The number of questions were put before the cart boy and Swami noted down all the
related information such as his name, address etc in his notebook and the rest of the friends
signed the page and tore it and gave it to the boy. The cart boy then permitted to move on.

The episode is relevant, for teenagers, like Swami and his friends, do indulge in such pranks, but
it is not so very humorous as it very well could have been. Narayan is not here at his best as a
humorist.

Tears and smiles alternate in life, and so they did in the life of Swami also. While he had
happy time in the company of his friends, and played and loafed about at will, it was not so very
pleasant at home. To his great annoyance, in the second week of May, his father’s court would
remain closed. Now he was at home in the afternoons, and he took it into his head to teach
Swami. Swami, of course, resented this, and considered it to be a breach of promise, for his
father had said that after the examinations, he would be free to pass his time as he liked. But now
the promise was forgotten, and one fine afternoon he was not allowed to go out to his friends.

He was first made to clean his books and arrange them properly on his table in his
father’s room. Then his father began to teach him arithmetic. He was asked to solve a simple
sum that Rama has ten mangoes with which he wants to earn fifteen annas. Krishna wants only
four mangoes. How much will Krishna have to pay?

Swami read the sum several times and every time he caught new meaning but could not
solve the sum. His mouth began to water at the thought of the mangoes. He wondered what made
Rama fix fifteen annas for ten mangoes. What kind of a man was Rama? Probably he was like
Shankar. Somehow one couldn’t help feeling that he must have been like Shankar, with his ten
mangoes and his iron determination to get fifteen annas. If Rama was like Shankar, Krishna must
have been like the Pea. Here Swaminathan felt an unaccountable sympathy for Krishna. All sorts
of questions kept crowding into his mind. The novelist has given “the stream of consciousness”
of poor Swami to bring out fully the agony he suffered. The entire episode is a telling instance of
psychological realism.

Time passed and Swami was unable to solve the sum. Then his father got irritated and
said that he would make him solve it. He asked him if ten mangoes cost fifteen annas what is the
cost of one? Then he gently twisted Swami’s ear. Swami could not answer because he did not
know what to apply i.e. addition, multiplication, subtraction or division. The more he kept mum,
the more he ear twisted by his father. His father got angrier on him because he could not utter a
single word and scolded him by saying that he did not let him go unless he would answer the
question.

When Swami did not answer his father helped him and said, “one mango costs, fifteen
over ten annas”. He then asked Swami to simplify it. At the end of fifteen minutes Swami found
out that, “the price of one mango is three over two annas”, and the father asked him to simplify it
still further. Swami could answer after a half an hour that “Krishna must pay six annas” and he
began to cry. It was a torture for him.

The father felt sorry for having tortured the boy so much that afternoon, and so invited
him to come with him to his club. Swami dressed up in no time, and was soon in a car of one of
his father’s friends. While his father sat with his friend on the front seat, Swami sat in the back
seat. It was a proud moment for Swami, and he very much wished his friends were there to see
him in the car.

At the club, he thought his father was the best player, for none could return his balls. To
have a better look at the game he moved closer to the screen. Then he saw that the picker in
khaki dress was none else but the coachman’s son, his enemy. He, too, recognised him, took out
his knife and grinned at him maliciously. Poor Swami was terrorised. Fear gripped his soul. As
they walked from the tennis court to the club-room, Swami was full of apprehensions that the
coachman’s son would stab him in the back.
The distance from the tennis court to the building was about a dozen yards, but to Swaminathan
it seemed to be a mile and a half. He felt safe when he sat in the chair beside his father in the
card-room. A thick cloud of smoke floated in the air. Father was shuffling and throwing cards
with great zest. This was the safest place on earth. There was father and any number of his
friends, and let the coachman’s son try a hand if he liked. A little later Swaminathan looked out
of the window and felt disturbed at the sight of the stars. It would be darker still by the time the
card game finished, and father rose to go home.

The distance to the car seemed interminably long to him. Even when seated in the car, he
did not feel quite comfortable. He felt safe and re-assured only when the car had picked up
speed. Then he felt that his enemy could no longer harm.

Broken Panes is the twelfth chapter of the novel. It was the 15th of August 1930. The
struggle for Indian freedom was on, under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. A prominent
worker, Gauri Shanker, had been arrested in Bombay and protest meetings were organised in
Malgudi also. An eloquent speaker moved the audience by his fiery speech. Mani and Swami
formed a part of the audience and Swami was much excited, particularly by the speaker’s idea
that they could drown England, if each one of them spat on it. The country was so small and yet
it ruled over them, and they were the slaves of the hated English. In order to put an end to their
slavery, they must not wear cloth manufactured in the mills of England, but wear only Khadi.
The upshot was a bonfire and imported cloth was burnt in large quantities. Swami’s cap was also
burnt, though later on Swami’s father told him that it was made of Khaddar, and not of any
imported cloth.

The events of the day had deeply moved Swami, and he was keen to play his own part in
the service of his motherland. The next day at school, a strike was declared and Swami was not
allowed to go in. The boys were assembled in front of the school, the Headmaster appealed to
them to go to their classes, but none obeyed him. The crowd increased, and some outsiders
mixed up with the boys, and there was much slogan shouting. Swami was highly excited. He
noticed that a boy was collecting stones and using them to break the window-panes of the school.
Swami joined him and broke the panes of the Headmaster’s room. The action gave him great
satisfaction, for in this way he was having his revenge on those who had cut the thumbs of the
weavers of Dhaka muslin and had then enslaved them.

Just then somebody shouted that the Board High School at the end of Market Road was
functioning as usual. Soon the crowd reached it. Their self-styled leaders entered the building
and requested the headmaster to close the ‘school for the day. He refused and ordered them to get
out, otherwise he would call the police. This was received with lamentation and jeering and it
was followed by the breaking of chairs and tables and the smashing of window-panes. Swami
played a prominent part in this smashing and breaking which continued for sometime. He even
entered the infant class and dragged out some of the children.

Having disturbed the schoolwork successfully, the crowd marched in a procession

towards the Market Road. The entire atmosphere re-sounded with their slogans. Soon the police
was on the scene, and to Swami’s great terror, it was Rajam’s father who was in-charge of the
operation. He gave them ten minutes to disperse, and when they did not disperse, he ordered the
police to resort to lathi-charge. Many were wounded. They ran in fear, and many fell and
received injuries. Swami, too, ran for his life, and received a mild lathi-stroke on his head as he
ran. That night as he lay in bed, he was conscious of a dull pain all over his body.

In school next day, there was further trouble in store for him. Those who had absented
themselves on the previous day, were closely questioned by the Headmaster as to their reasons
for not coming to the school. As their replies were not satisfactory, they were heavily fined,
suspended from school, and ordered to stand on their benches. Swami was also questioned but he
did not answer at all. The Headmaster was infuriated. The school peon deposed against him and
told him that he was the one who had broken the panes of his room. Poor Swami could not deny
the charge. He could not bear the strokes of the Headmaster’s cane and cried out, “Don’t beat
me, sir, it pains”. But the beating continued. Swami became desperate, and with the courage born
of desperation, burst out, “I don’t care for your dirty school”, and ran out with his books. Thus
came to a sudden end his educational career at the Albert Mission School, Malgudi.

The thirteenth chapter is entitled as The M.C.C. Now six weeks passed. During this time
Swami becomes so stubborn that his father had him admitted to the Second (C) of the Board
High School. It was considered to be inferior to the Albert Mission School, and it was supposed
that boys there acquired a look of stupidity and suffered from mental decay. At least this was the
view of Rajam who one day came to Swami willing to forget and forgive th- past, including
Swami’s “political activities” and be friends with him again. Rajam was anti-political, for his
father was a government servant and a police-officer.

Swami however was happy in his new school. First, the other boys were curious about
the new-comer and Swami was much pleased to find that he was the centre of attraction for the
boys of his class. Secondly, he supposed that he would continue to enjoy the company of his old
friends, that the group of his friends was still unbroken. In this, he was mistaken, for things had
changed. Due to his father’s transfer Shankar disappeared; Somu did not meet him and in this
way, Swami was cutout from the entire group of friends. Having been promoted the Pea returned
to the class after the three months but now he had many anxieties and worries regarding his
medical certificates, explanations, and exemptions. Now, Swami’s situation had become very
critical he was full of worries, anxieties, and questions. Moreover, he felt his old friends as
strangers. As far as Swami was concerned only Mani and Rajam were still there to help him.
Rajam got reconciliation with Swami and now Mani also met him every day.

It was like old times once again. Rajam suggested that they should found a cricket team
and challenge other teams to a match. It would be very exciting. Various names were considered.
Swami could suggest a number of attractive names. They decided to call their team by two
names: M.C.C. (Malgudi Cricket Club) for daily use, and Victory Union Eleven for tournaments.
But they were afraid that the Govt, will tax them, and if they have two names, they may have to
pay double tax. On this issue, even Rajam took an anti-government stand. Mani was taken into
confidence as one of the founder members of the M.C.C.

Messrs Binns, a reputed firm of Madras had arranged a catalogue of sports goods for the
M.C.C. and after the deep study of the price and goods of the sport products; Rajam placed an
order with the reputed firm of Madras. A few days later, when they received a post card, they
thought it was from Messrs Binns but in reality it was from Shanker. He told them he was doing
well, and that he was there with his parents. The three friends decided to separately reply to him
am4 his letter was copied out with necessary modifications. It was after this vhat they discovered
to their great discomfiture that Shanker had not given his address, and that they did not know
even the name of the town from where the letter was posted. The readers are much amused: boys
are boys after all.

To their great delight, the much awaited letter from Messrs Binns did at last arrives along
with a large catalogue. The letter had three implications, which the boys at once recognised

(1) that His Majesty’s Post Office recognised their team was proved by the fact that the letter
addressed to the captain was promptly delivered to him; (2) that the reputed firm of Madras,
Messrs Binns troubled to answer in a full length letter instead of a small card to the team. (3)
Messrs Binns sent another cover, carrying four-anna postage and a descriptive catalogue within
it. From all these matters, the members of M.C.C. felt proud because such reputed firm
recognised them.

However, still it was not clear that whether Messrs Binns would send them the ordered
items. In the reply letter, the firm had asked to pay 25% of their order as an advance but the three
friends failed to understand the meaning of the letter. Then they concluded that the letter was
sent by mistake to Rajam whereas in reality it was meant for somebody else. Hence, with the
funny covering letter it was returned to them:

We are very sorry that you sent me somebody’s letter. We

are returning this somebody’s letter. Please send our things
immediately (Narayan: 2010, 141).

The entire episode is full of humour and child psychology, which reflect the deep study
and knowledge of R. K. Narayan. Boys are very optimistic, and so were Swami and his friends.
They were hopeful that the goods ordered for by them would soon arrive. The considerable time
had passed from the placement of the order but they neither received any reply nor any sport
items i.e. bats, balls and stumps. Then, they left the hope for any help from the firm and Rajam
made three bats out of the bottom of a dealwood case on his own risk and cost. He also managed
three old tennis balls from his father’s club. A piece of ground adjoining to Rajam’s house was
decided to be used as the field by all the members of the team and at the same time the Pea also
promised to arrange for the stumps from his home. So, an early date was fixed for the
inauguration of their club. On the appointed day and time, they waited and waited for the Pea to
come with the stumps. When at last he did come, he was without the stumps, which he said, he
could not find even after a long search, though he was still sure, they were in the house.

At last, they found out a way to overcome the difficulty. A part of the wall of Rajam’s
house was marked out as the stumps, and so they began to play. It was in this way that the
M.C.C. was inaugurated. Swami bowled and Rajam was declared out with the very first ball.
They shouted with joy and gave him the title, “Tate”.

Granny Shows Her Ignorance is the fourteenth chapter of the novel which opens with an
account of Swami’s troubles. At the Board High School a very rigid and heavy schedule was
followed. The boys were given too much of home work, and if any one of them failed to do it, he
was caned the next day. Poor Swami had to devote more time to his studies, and he hardly got
any leisure now. The school ended at 4.30 but after that there was drill on the school field, and
there were also scout classes. The result was that Swami was invariably late in reaching the play-
ground (the strip of land adjoining Rajam’s residence). The result was that though he was the
Tate of the M.C.C. team, he could not practise bowling and the day of the match they were to
play was quite near. Both Rajam, the captain, and Mani were impatient, and urged Swami to
devote more time to cricket. Swami, too, felt guilty, for Rajam had spent hundreds of rupees over
bats and balls, and here he was unable to practise bowling and do his bit for the club.

One evening as they were returning from the club, Swami’s conscience was troubled by a
little incident that had happened in the afternoon. As he was rushing out of the house for the
play-ground, his Granny had called him, complained of stomach-ache, and appealed to him to
bring a lemon for her without delay. Swami took the three paise which she gave to him, but
instead of returning with the lemon, he came to the play-ground. Now his imagination conjured
before him visions of his Granny writhing in pain. He even thought that she might already be
dead. His boyish imagination much exaggerated the whole affair, and it was in acute agony that
he reached home. He was much relieved to find that his Granny was alright. She could get the
lemon, as it was already there in the kitchen.
 Swami felt guilty and repentant, and so he sat with her and talked to her for a few
minutes. He was shocked at her ignorance. She did not know who Tate was, and so could not
enjoy the thrill of his being the “Tate” of the M.C.C. She did not even know what cricket was.
Swami tried his best to explain to her the nature of the game, its rules and regulations, and told
her the names of some of the reputed players. But she could hardly understand even three percent
of what he said. He had no option, but to resign her to her ignorance.

The match was to be played a few days later, but still Swami was unable to reach the
playground in time. He could not practise bowling, as he ought to have done. Captain Rajam
disapproved of his coming to the playground so late every evening. It was the school time-table
which made him late, despite his best efforts to the contrary. He was afraid to approach the
Headmaster for exemption from the drill-class, for he may detain him in the Second Form for
ages. But it was essential that Swami should be free to devote more time to bowling. So, Rajam
decided to see the Headmaster himself, and request him to exempt Swami from the drill-class
and Mani said that he, too, would go with his clubs which had not been used for a long time.
Swami was afraid for he knew that the Headmaster “would kill” him, if not in their presence,
certainly when they were gone. But Rajam insisted on seeing him the very next day, but he
ordered Mani not to come. He should mind his own business.

Swami was afraid of consequences, and so next morning he decided not to go to school.
He made his eyes red by rubbing them, complained of severe headache, and also that he was
feeling feverish. His father was not taken in by his pretensions which he knew were made
because he did not want to go to school, but his mother stood up for him. Even though the
thermometer showed that he had no fever, he was not allowed to go to school, and was made to
remain lying in bed. By the afternoon, Swami was tired of bed. He also supposed that by then,
Rajam must have already met the Headmaster and then gone to his own school. So, he
announced that he was well, and that he was going to school. On the way he met Rajam, and also
Mani with his club. Rajam had waited for him, and he did not see the Headmaster because there
was no point in meeting him alone. Now he went into his room with Swami, while Mani waited
outside. They found the terrible Headmaster asleep with his head between his hands and his
elbow resting on the table. The readers are much amused at this little comedy, this deflation of
the teacher.
 The boys waited for ten minutes, and then made noises with their feet in order to awaken
him. He woke up, searched for his spectacles and then talked to the boys. He was firm and
sarcastic. He refused to listen to what they did in the Pariah School (The Albert Mission School),
nor did he agree to grant Swami exemption from the drill-class. Rajam was irritated and Mani
who had been waiting outside, grew impatient, and came in with his club. The interview ended
after a short period of time.

Before the Match is the fifteenth chapter of the novel, which narrates the pre-preparation
of the boys for the match. The M.C.C. challenged the Young Men’s Union to a friendly match,
the challenge was accepted and the match fixed for a Sunday two weeks later. The challenge, of
course, was not so very friendly. There were threats, and a number of absurd conditions, which
the novelist ironically refers to as terrifying. The Y.M.U. was a formidable team, they practised
regularly, and had a number of good players. But they lacked a suitable playground and had
often to practise in the middle of Kulam street.

Days passed, still Swami could not reach the field in time for sufficient practice. When
only seven days were left, Swami had a brain wave. He lined up with the other boys on the drill
ground, but did not take of his cap and coat as usual. When questioned, he told the drill master
that he was having delirium, and must be exempted from drill. He could not sleep at all, and the
doctor had advised him not to attend drill for a week. The teacher did not believe him, still he
allowed him to go. That day, he reached the field in time, and could have sufficient practise.

Next morning he had another brain-wave. He approached his family doctor, and
requested him to give him a medical certificate so that he may get exemption from drill and scout
classes for a week. The doctor said that he was in the best of health, and if he gave a false
certificate he will be prosecuted. But he promised to speak to the Headmaster and request him to
exempt Swami from attending the drill classes for a week. Swami was fully satisfied, and
henceforth he did not go to the drill or the scout class. He reached the field in time, and had
regular practise. All were happy, and Rajam most of all.

But the doctor did not keep his promise. He did not talk to the Headmaster at all. He had
betrayed Swami. The result was that on Friday, the Headmaster came to the geography class,
Swami was called out, and was asked to explain why he was not attending drill and scout classes.
Swami’s incoherent replies were of no avail, the Headmaster had not forgotten Rajam and
Mani’s visit and their threats, and he now got ready to cane Swami before the whole class.
Swami lost his head, he snatched the cane from the Headmaster’s hand, threw it away, then took
up his books, and ran out of the school. Swami knew well the consequences of his rash action.
This is clearly brought out by his “stream of consciousness” which the novelist has given at full
length in the novel. Swami did not like to go again in that school where a tyrant was living. He
knew it well that if his father would come to know about the school matter he would take some
strange steps against Swami. He was very much sure about his father that he would force him to
go back to the same school where he did not want to go in any way. At the same time he knew
that he was rusticated from two schools of his town and now there was no school left in Malgudi
so his father had to sent him somewhere to Trichinopoly or Madras. He had fear that the
Headmaster of Board High School would write a letter to all the schools about him and he would
not be admitted in any school. Only option had been left for him that he would have to work and
earn his bread butter himself. He was familiar with his father’s nature that if he would not go to
school, his father would not permit him to live in his house and he might beat Swami. So with
heavy heart he had taken a decision of not to go home in any situation because he could not face
his father. Now he was in dilemma about where to go and he lastly decided to go very far away
from Malgudi.

But before he left Malgudi, he wanted to bid farewell to Rajam. So he went to his old
school and the sight of the school building filled him with wistful longings. His friends were
comfortably studying there. White he, an outcast, a pariah, stood outside afraid to go in. He
could go to no school any longer, he must work and earn his own living. He was alone and
isolated like a leper. Not daring to go in, he looked over the wall, and called a small boy of the
first standard. He tempted him with the offer of an almond peppermint, to call Rajam. When
Rajam came, he poured out all his troubles into his ears. It was the doctor who was the villain of
the Peace; but for his treachery, everything would have been all right. He was in serious trouble,
without any fault of his. He would come for regular practise. There were still two days to the
match and they would certainly beat the Y.M.U.
 He did not tell Rajam of his plans of leaving Malgudi that very day. Rather, he tried to
throw him off the scent by pretending that he would practise not only in the evenings but in the
mornings also. He knew that if he told the truth, Rajam would certainly stop him. The meeting
ended, as Rajam ran to his class, asking Swami to come to the field early. Swami’s deep spiritual
anguish is clearly brought out by his “stream of consciousness”.

Swami Disappears is the sixteenth chapter of the novel which tells the story of Swami’s
disappearance. On that day Swami did not come home. His parents waited patiently till nine
o’clock, but when he still did not come, Swami’s mother and grandmother became more or less
demented and dazed. They compelled his father to go out in search of his son. He might have
met an accident, he might have been overrun by the train, or he might have been drowned in the
river Sarayu which flowed just on the outskirts of the city.

In the beginning, his father was not so very nervous but as time passed his own fears
increased and he began to have visions of various horrible possibilities. He dared not enter the
Civil Hospital, for there he might find his son bandaged all over and reduced to pulp. He went to
the river and was terrified with the vision of his son, dead and bloated with the water of the river.
At the railway track seeing some moisture, he touched it with his hands, and was much relieved
to find that it was water and not blood.

The Day of the Match is seventeenth chapter of the novel that narrates the situation of the
match on the one hand and on the other hand, it narrates the tense situation of Swami’s parents.
Swami did not return home, but walked along the Truck Road for sometime, and then took a
narrow road shaded with trees that branched from the Trunk Road. He walked on and on, and
then he felt tired and hungry. He felt pain in his hips and thighs and remembered the delicious
food that was served at home. He called himself a fool for having run away from home for a
mere trifle. For it now seemed to him that the trouble at school was no serious matter. No doubt,
his father would have been angry, but his mother and grandmother would certainly have taken
his side, and ultimately everything would have been all right. His father would have set matters
right. He, therefore, decided to return home. He would, no doubt, be quite late, but then he could
invent some story to account for the delay.
 He had hoped to reach the trunk road soon, but he walked and walked, and still there was
no trunk road. The fact was that he had made a mistake. He had taken a wrong turn. He had
entered a narrow path, and was now walking into the Mempi Forests at some distance from
Malgudi. He was tired, he was hungry, and the enveloping darkness terrified him. He became
delirious, and imagined that all sorts of monsters and devils were in the pursuit of him. The
novelist has given us his “stream of consciousness” to enable us to form an idea of his imaginary
terrors, and of the hallucinations he was having.

As he continued his journey, his terrors increased. He was caught in a quagmire, and he
could walk through it with great difficulty. His thoughts became incoherent. The devils and
monsters which had terrified him so far, now gave way to the hallucination that he was playing
the match against the Y.M.U. They were victorious, and then they chased away the Y.M.U. He
laughed at the very thought of it, and then collapsed with exhaustion. Early the next morning, he
was discovered lying unconscious on the path by a cart-driver. The cart-man placed him in his
cart and carried him to the government officer (he was the Forest Officer, who was staying in the
Traveller’s Bungalow close by). There, after some rest, Swami regained consciousness. First, he
wondered as to where he was, then he mistook the Forest Officer to be his father, and then
gradually his mind cleared. By the morning he was up and doing. The Forest Officer found him
aiming stones at a tree and was told that he was the Tate for his team, and that he was practising
bowling. He must return home, for the match was to be played on Sunday, and he would never
let down his team. He was much relieved to learn that it was only Saturday, and that he could be
at home by the evening. We may add here that the Forest Officer, kindly and sympathetic,
intentionally hid the truth from Swami. We would know later on that it was Sunday and not
Saturday. But the Forest Officer did not tell this to Swami for he had seen his enthusiasm, and
his anxiety, for the match, and avoided hurting his feelings in the weak state of his health at the
time. It was really “the day of the match”, but Swami came to know of this truth much latter.

The Return is the eighteenth chapter of the novel that tells the story of Swami’s return
from the jungle. The chapter opens with a brief account of the match, but it is mainly concerned
with the “return of Swami” to Malgudi and his home. By three-thirty on Sunday afternoon, it was
clear that the M.C.C. has collapsed, and the glory of victory was to go to the Y.M.U. Their
Captain scored heavily, he played like a machine and exhausted all their bowlers. They had no
such scorer, and as for bowling Rajam felt the urgent need of their Tate, and was angry with him
because he had let them down. He had not turned up for the match, and they had none to replace
him. After the interval when the M.C.C. batted they could not score many runs and their players
were out in quick succession. The match was to end at five-thirty, they needed at least seventy-
eight runs even to make it a draw, and they knew they would never score so many runs. Rajam
and Mani were helpless and in despair.

It was now that Rajam’s father came to whisper to him that words had been brought
regarding the whereabouts of Swami, and wanted to know if he would like to accompany them to
fetch him back home. Of course, Rajam could not leave the match, and he was also angry with
Swami. He did not want to speak to him, even to see his face. Swami was brought home rather
late that Sunday afternoon, and was given a hero’s welcome. His Granny and mother kept
hovering round him and a number of his father’s friends. His Granny and mother kept hovering
round him, and a number of his father’s friends, and their neighbours, came to see Swami. He
was the centre of attraction, all were concerned about him, he was given delicious snacks, and
even the baby was neglected for the moment. His father had made everything right at the school,
and he need not fear the Headmaster any more. However, his happiness was s hort lived, for he
was much pained to learn that it was Sunday, and not Saturday, as the Forest Officer had told
him, and so he had missed the match. It was Mani who told him this truth, for he came to see him
as soon as the match was over. Rajam was angry and so he had not come. He was displeased
with him for he kept him in the dark, and did not tell him that he intended to run away, when he
came to see him in the school. Mani advised him to avoid meeting Rajam, for so angry he was
that he might even shoot him. However, he promised to do his best to pacify him.

Parting Present is the nineteenth and the last chapter of the novel that tells us of the
transfer of Rajam’s father from Malgudi, and the consequent exit of Rajam from Malgudi
forever. The “Parting Present” is the gift that Swami gives to his “dearest friend” at the moment
of his departure. Rajam and his parents were to leave Malgudi by the five O’clock train on
Tuesday morning. Mani had known this for quite sometime, but he gave Swami the sad news
only on Monday night. He had not told him of the transfer earlier, for Rajam had strictly
forbidden him to tell anything about it to Swami. Swami was much pained and hurt. But he
reached the station in time to bid farewell to his friend. He carried with him Anderson’s Fairy
Tales to give to his friend as a “Parting Present”.

But he could not talk to Rajam, for he and his parents were surrounded throughout by the
police and the district officers of Malgudi. He could not even approach him, and when the train
started, he appealed to Mani to at least try to give to him the present which he had brought for
him. The present was duly given, and Swami was glad that it was accepted. He was further
delighted to learn that Mani had given to Rajam his address, and he would surely write to him.

Thus, Swami parted for ever from his “Nearest friend”. The pathos of the parting brings a
lump to the throat. The entire novel is full of child psychology and it narrates the rainbow world
of the children in the imagined town Malgudi.

3.3 The Theme of the Novel

In all the novels of Narayan, the central character is not heroic at all. Most of Narayan’s
heroes are unheroic and they belong to middle class or below middle class family with common
human virtues and weaknesses. They have to struggle towards maturity. The more they get
maturity, the more their situations become critical. Thus, Narayan’s characters are the puppets in
the hands of situation. They dance on the finger of situation. The characters of Narayan become
wise and mature by struggling with circumstances. And his very first novel is no exception in
this respect, though this theme is not so well-marked in it as in the later novels.

Acceptance of Life, a Sign of Maturity

Narayan’s heroes ultimately accept life as it is, and this is a measure of their spiritual
maturity. This acceptance includes, “delight in the expressive variety of life, cognisance of its
absurdities, mockery at its pretension and acknowledgement of its difficulties.” This acceptance
is something which is gradually worked towards, grown upto, and matured. The point would
become clear if we briefly examine Swami’s struggles, his suffering, and his ultimate
achievement of a measure of maturity and wisdom.

Swami’s Escapades: Steps Towards Maturity

Swami is ten years old at the time when the novel opens. His responses have not yet been
patterned and disciplined; they are individual, impulsive and spontaneous. The result is he is
involved in one trouble after another, but after each of such escapades he realises his mistake and
so gains a little in maturity. Each one of his experience is a part of his education; it is a step
forward towards maturity. A few examples, selected at random, would suffice to establish the
point.

In the very beginning, we find that Swami is unable to endure the criticism of Hindu gods
on the part of Ebenezar, the scripture teacher, puts awkward questions, so that the teacher is
angry and twists his ears. Swami complains to his father, who writes a strong letter to the
Headmaster. Swami is afraid, thinks that he has needlessly involved himself in trouble, and that
it would have been better by far not to have spoken to his father about the matter. He felt he
would not mind if a hundred Ebenezars said a thousand time worse things about the affair. He
felt an impulse to run home and the Headmaster rebuked him that he was there to look after his
students, and in case of any difficulty they should come to him instead of going anywhere else.
In this way, he realised, he had made a fool of himself. It is the first lesson which he learns.

Another small step towards maturity is taken when he realises that after all Mani is not so
very formidable as he appeared to him. Swami had become very friendly with Rajam, the new
arrival, and his erstwhile friends nicknamed him the ‘tail’, ‘the tail of Rajam’. Mani stood up for
him and there was a fierce fight in a “lonely part of the school compound” between Mani and
Somu. Swami felt that they would murder each other, but the Headmaster could stop the fight,
and part them quite easily. Swami was much surprised to find that Mani, “the Mighty good-for-
nothing” with two clubs at home to break skulls, was, after all, not so very Mighty and
formidable. Similarly, he was pleasantly surprised to find that Mani, who had challenged Rajam
to a duel, and had planned to break his head and throw him into the river, could be so easily
reconciled to him and turn a friend within no time. The myth of Mani’s might was thus exploded
and Swami could now look at things from a more correct perspective.

Discomfiture and Suffering: Their Impact

Another step towards maturity is taken through Swami’s involvement with the coachman
and his son. The coachman easily cheats him of twelve paises and when Swami wants his money
back, he either ignores him or threatens to beat him. Rajam thinks of a plan, and Mani is deputed
to execute it. Mani and Swami would go to the coachman’s son, Mani would pretend to be
hostile to Swami, and in this way decoy the coachman’s son to come with them, and then they
would deal with him. Swami is beaten and abused by Mani and the coachman’s son is more than
a match for them. Dogs are set upon them, and they have to run for their lives. Swami thus
realises that he was a fool, first, to have believed the coachman and, secondly, to have tried to
recover his money from a rascal like him. The whole episode results in his discomfiture and
much suffering. Henceforth, he goes about in terror of his life, for the coachman’s son had
threatened to stab him with his knife, whenever he would get a chance.

Political Activity: The Dawn of Wisdom

Similarly, Swami’s political activity makes him a much sadder and wiser person; it is an
important step in his maturity. He absents himself from the school and goes on a spree of
window smashing not only in his school but also in the Board High School. The result is that the
next day, the Headmaster of his school takes him to task. He: questions him as to why he did not
come to school on the previous day, the school peon deposes against him with the result that he
is made to stand on the desk, and is caned by the Headmaster. Unable to endure this humiliation,
he snatches the cane from the Headmaster and runs out of the school. His career as a student of
Albert Mission School thus comes to a sudden end. As he himself tells his friends later on, he
ought not to have indulged at all in his “political activity”. The wisdom dawns upon him that it
would have been better by far to have stayed at home on that fateful day.

A long step forward towards maturity is taken when Swami runs away from home and
Malgudi. He was admitted to the Board High School and had to undergo the painful experience
of being looked down upon by the boys of the Albert Mission School which is a superior
institution. The M.C.C. is founded, Swami is declared to be ‘the Tate’ of his team, because of his
skilful bowling and the Y.M.U. is challenged to a friendly cricket match, and the challenge is
accepted. This is all very well, but then their ‘Tate’ is unable to come for practise in time. He has
to attend the drill classes and scout classes, after school hours, and no time is left for the practise
of bowling on the cricket field. When the date fixed for the match is quite near, Swami begins to
cut drill and scout classes. The result is that the Headmaster asks him to explain his conduct and
when he fails to give any satisfactory reply, he is caned before the whole class. Rash and
impulsive as usual, Swami snatches the cane from the Headmaster, takes up his books and runs
out of the class, shouting that he does not want to study in that dirty school.

“Futility of Escape”: Need of Acceptance

Soon he realises that it is no longer possible for him to stay in Malgudi. Neither can he go
to his home, for his father would be angry, nor can be continue his education in Malgudi, for
there is no third school. He, therefore, runs away from home and Malgudi to try his luck
elsewhere. The novelist has here given us his “stream of consciousness” so that we get a peep
into his anguished soul. Soon he is tired, hungry, and also terrified, for he is all alone on the road,
and it is getting dark. Then he remembers the comforts of home, the love and affection of his
mother and grandmother and the delicious food that he used to get there. It was a mistake on his
part not to have gone home and confided in his parents. No doubt, his father would have been a
little angry, would have rebuked him a little, but ultimately matters would have been alright.
People were afraid of him, and somehow or the other, he would have seen to it that he was
admitted to one school or the other. His thinking processes are more logical now, his attitude is
more sane and balanced, suffering has purged him of much of his folly and rashness. He decides
to return home, is terrified to find himself all alone in a forest, is exhausted and hungry, suffers
from delirium and falls down unconscious. It is only with the help of a kindly Forest Officer that
he is restored to his home and family. He realises that efforts to escape from harsh reality are
futile, reality must be accepted and faced.

Restoration of Order and Normalcy

 At the end of the novel, Swami is entirely changed. Now he grows mature and tries to
understand and perform his responsibilities. He becomes somewhat serious and sincere. He
repents on the act of escaping from home and he realises the real essence of life. Now, he
understand that life is a total sum of joy and sorrow that one have to face it at the various stages
of life. The normal order was temporarily disturbed by his escape, but now, by his return,
normalcy is restored once again. His parents and his Granny are happy, and through the efforts of
his father matters are set right and he is re-admitted to the Board High School.

Thus, in the present novel the theme is very obvious and clear that has been employed by
Narayan. He has very swiftly presented his theme in this novel through the mature and immature
characters.

3.4 The Projection of Child

Narayan’s construction of the child and childhood is an important aspect of his work. In
Swami and Friends it is clearly seen that Narayan had only sympathy and compassion for the
child. In his own childhood, as delineated in My Days, we see Narayan’s more than sympathetic
portrayal of himself in relation to adults. Mali and Balu are aberrations but Swami, the Pea,
Somu and the Malgudi set are innocents and clearly Narayan saw any violence done to the child
as wrong and unacceptable. One has only to compare Narayan’s children with Kipling’s in Stalky
and Co. or Golding’s Lord of the Flies. In the works of the British writers, we see the values of
manliness and power at work. Kipling’s children are meant for the Great Game of Imperialism,
as indeed Kim from the eponymously named novel. Their activities are characterised by violence
and a tough unsentimentality. Likewise, Golding’s children play out the imperial game of power
and authority and their activities are not the least innocent or non-violent. Narayan’s children
fight but their fights have nothing to do with preparation for the Civil Service and indeed are
remarkable for their lack of malice. Narayan’s children are tender and Swami’s poignant farewell
to Rajam is indicative of a different world altogether. While we might see them as part of an
innocent world, it is instructive to compare them with the outwardly innocent ‘babes in the
wood’ of Golding’s allegory. Narayan’s realism operates only at a certain level. Swami and his
friends act the way they do because that is how children act. Narayan does not invest these
Malgudians with the evil significance as Golding’s children have. Golding’s ‘innocents’, when
presented by circumstance, can act with the cruelty of adults. Golding’s world, like Conrad’s, is
one informed by horror. Narayan has no such sense of the world. If we move beyond Swami, we
do see evil people and potentially tragic and dark events, but in all of Narayan the innocence is
affirmed. Narayan’s short stories have several children like Dodu and in his non-fictional
pronouncements Narayan occasionally spoke of the child as needing careful nurture but Swami
and Friends remains Narayan’s extended and sympathetic treatment of the child and of
childhood.

The novel is basically the story of Swami, of his adventures and misadventures. We see
him not only in the company of his friends, but also at home with his parents, his granny, and his
baby brother, the new arrival. Swami is the child protagonist of the present novel. The first line
opens with the character of Swami and the last line of the novel closes with the grief of Swami.
Thus, he is considered as the hero of the novel but not an active hero because he cannot control
the circumstances on the contrary he is controlled by them as Raju the leading character of The
Guide. The result is he drifts passively about, is involved in difficulties, from which he is
rescued by the timely help of others.

Swami is a little boy of ten year. He studies in the class of First Form (A) in the Albert
Mission School. He is not a clever student but an average students and he always hates Monday
because he does not like school. The study resumes from Monday after the delicious rest of
Saturday and Sunday. Due to his incomplete and unsatisfactory work, he is scolded and rebuked
by his teachers in the school. At home, he is always under the watch of his strict and traditional
father. His father does not let him to play and enjoy the evenings and even vacation. He is always
forced by his father for the study. However, he feels comfort in the company of his friends at
school and even at home in the summer vacation. Mani and Rajam are his fast friends with with
he can share his sorrows and joy of his life.

Swami is an unheroic hero of Narayan because he rarely commences any action himself.
Mostly, Swami initiates any action on the suggestions made by his friends and other persons. He
is always under the impression of others. At school, he seeks help from Mani and Rajam because
Mani is physically strong and Rajam is intellectually strong. Even during the independence
movement, he throws his cap into the fire on the suggestion of the other people whom even he
does not know. He throws stones at the glasses of the windows of his school. He is easily made
fool by the coachman. He believes the incredible story of coachman that he can convert Swami’s
twelve paise into six rupees without applying his any logic and mind. Thus, Swami is easily
robbed and made fool by any person. When coachman threatens him and denies to return his
money, he makes complaint to Rajam and Mani. Again, on the suggestions of Rajam, he initiates
his action without applying his mind. Rajam suggests that in order to make a friendship with
coachman’s son. Many would be pretending to be hostile with him. As a result of this plan,
Swami is abused and beaten by his fast friend Mani and even though he does not get anything
out of his friend’s plan. The coachman’s son is very cleverer than them because they are robbed
with a piece of sweet by the coachman’s son. When Rajam makes a plan to kidnap coachman’s
son by making false friendship with him, he does not like Rajam’s idea but Swami cannot say
‘No’ to Rajam because he is afraid of Rajam. He thinks that if he presents any objection against
the plan of Rajam, he would break his friendship and he is left alone. Thus, Swami is a passive
hero of the novel who does not initiate any action himself. Later in the novel, when Rajam puts
his idea of founding the M.C.C. team, Swami cannot utter even a single word and he simply
accepts the suggestion of Rajam and obeys each order of Captain Rajam. When Rajam demands
from Swami to come early on the match ground for the practice, he cannot put any objection
against it. In the school, he makes various excuses to attain the match practice. When his
Headmaster scolds him, he cannot utter any word in his favour but he makes complaint to Rajam
and Mani. Even, he cannot utter a single word to doctor, who had promised him to offer a
medical certificate for his school leave. At last, when he is rusticated from both the schools, he
runs away from his school, home and his town Malgudi. The act of escaping from home
indicates Swami’s passive action. In the entire novel, he takes his own decision of escaping from
the home but on his only decision, he cannot remain firm. When he walks towards the forest
from evening to late evening, he feels tiredness, hunger and fear so he again decides to return
home. Swami is a slave of situations and circumstances because he cannot control the
circumstances but he is controlled by them.

R. K. Narayan has aptly justified the title of the novel, Swami and Friends because it is a
straightforward story of the boys for the boys. All the episodes and incidents of the story i.e.
Swami’s nature, his friendship, his actions – reactions, his quarrels, his relation with his mother,
orthodox and strict father, his pretty grandmother, teachers, his homework, his likes dislikes,
examinations and his arguments reflect the story of any school boy. Graham Greene puts a
sensitive finger on the right point when he speaks of Swami as being not simply a boy but a
child. A boy is a recognised figure in a given pattern obeying certain conventions. A child is an
individual human creature, unprophesiable, unlegislated for, enjoying spontaneously an
unrehearsed autonomy. The responses of a boy are socially patterned. He has undergone a
measure of discipline and has learned to act according to set patterns, conventions and codes of
conduct. His reactions can be predicted, but not that of a child. A child’s actions, on the other
hand, are impulsive spontaneous, and unpredictable. Swami is basically a child, and he has a
more individual and spontaneous existence than a school-boy. He has all the attractiveness and
the individuality of a child, he is still undistracted by sex or ambitions or money or career. He
observes the adult world around him and tries to understand it. He tries to build better terms with
the adult world.

Sometimes due to his immaturity, he repeatedly faces troubles while his friends are more
mature than Swami. Under the impression of others, he remains absent in the class and he throws
stones at the class of windows of his school. As a result of this, he is caned by his teachers when
he cannot bear the tyranny of his teacher he catches the cane and rudely behaves with his teacher
and runs away from his school, home and town. He is rusticated from both the schools of the
town Malgudi and at last he escapes into the forest but he is brought back by the forest officer.

Narayan has perfectly depicted the highly poetic and excitable imagination of a child
through his child characters in his novel. Children are attracted towards the heroism so they
easily come under the impression of other and they also make them their role models and try to
follow them. The same thing happens with Swami. Swami is under the good impression of his
fast friends Mani and Rajam who are physically and intellectually are strong respectively. Swami
is unable to face the reality because he always lives in his imaginary world. Swami always
praises and follows Mani and Rajam because he considered them as his heroes.

He really believes that Mani is physically strong so he can fight with anyone and can
break the skull with his club whereas Rajam, being intellectually strong can solve any academic
problem. He is surprised when he sees that Mani and Rajam are at quarrel in the school campus
but he gets surprise to see that with the interference of the Headmaster they are get separated. He
possesses all the gullibility of a small child because he easily believes the story of coachman that
he can convert his paisa into rupees and offers him some paisa. He also puts some coin under the
tree leaves and prays to God to convert his pebbles into rupees. When the coachman’s son
threatens him, he lives under the constant fear even in the presence of his father in the club.
When he sees him, Swami imagines that he would stab him or gather his friends and kill him.

From the first novel, Narayan has presented his deep knowledge of child psychology and
analysis of child behaviour and imagination. As William Walsh puts:

The psychological quickness, the nimbleness of perception, the

cool, untroubled scrutiny of the child’s nature and mind which
can issue into pure fun can also develop into a poetic sense of
the intensities of the boy’s experience and the depth of his
personality. Look at the ease, for example, with which Narayan
reveals the boy’s terror as he runs away from home at night:
“His ears became abnormally sensitive. They caught every
noise his feet made, with the slightest variations. His feet came
down on the ground with a light tick or a subdued crackle or a
gentle swish, according to the object on the ground: small dry
withered leaves. There were occasional patches of bare
uncovered ground, and there the noise was a light thud, or pit,
pat, pit, pat, pit, pat in monotonous repetition” (Walsh: 1982,
58).

Narayan has sensitive awareness, of the significance that size has in the child’s life.
Diminished size and minuteness of existence offer to the child reality reduced to a controllable
size and a model of the way children would wish existence to be. Even destruction, even death
itself, can be managed if they or their conditions are reduced in size. The point is illustrated by
the way in which Swami tries to save the life of an ant by placing it in a paper boat and let in
flow down the drain. When the boat sinks, he takes a pinch of sand and prays to God for the soul
of the ant and further he puts it into the gutter.
 Grownups may laugh at the responses of a child, like Swami, as being highly absurd and
exaggerated, as the making of mole-hills into mountains, but would not adult responses appear
equally ridiculous to the all seeing and all-knowing gods. In this connection, Francis Thompson
rightly remarks:

Most people, we suppose, must forget what they were like

when they were children otherwise they would know that
the griefs of their childhood were passionate
abandonment... Children’s griefs are little, certainly; but so
is the child, so is its endurance, so is its field of vision, while
its nervous impressionability is keener than ours. Grief is a
matter of relativity... Pour a puddle into a thimble, or an
Atlantic into Etna; both thimble and mountain overflow.
Adult fools, would not the angels smile at our griefs, were
not angels too wise to smile at them (Thompson: )

Swami’s happiness results from the fact that he has got four fast friends and later on he
gets another friend, Rajam. In the company of these friends he cuts jokes, plays pranks, loafs
about and also sometimes, is engaged in friendly quarrels. With Mani and Rajam his relations are
personal and human; these three (Swami, Mani and Rajam) constitute a sort of inner circle.
Swami’s relations with the other three - Somu, Shanker and the Pea - are scholastic and
impersonal. The novelist has briefly sketched the characters of Swami’s friends and the role they
play in the life of Swami.

First there is Somu, the monitor, who conducted himself with perfect ease and self-
confidence. He does his work with absolute confidence and calmness. He behaves friendly even
with his teachers. His teacher never dares to ask any question in the class. It is believed that only
Headmaster can ask the questions and scold him. He is considered as the uncle of the class.

Somu by teasing Swami informs him that Swami has earned a new name and he will be
called ‘The Tail – Rajam’s Tail’. Swami gets shock with his new name. He hardly digests the
thing that Somu, his friend and uncle of the class teases him with his new name. Swami thinks
that why Somu is so angry with him. Further, he thinks what is wrong in keeping friendship with
Rajam. Swami is deeply hurt by his friend and he is brooding over his words for long time.
Later, Somu quarrels with Mani on some matter, no one is able to separate them except the
Headmaster. With the help of Rajam Somu gets reconciliation with Mani. However, Somu fails
in the class and he is not promoted to the next class. So automatically, he is excluded from the
group. Now, he plays no further role in the life of Swami.

Another student is Shanker. He is the cleverest boy of the class. He is so cleaver that he
can solve any problem within five minutes. He always gets ninety percentages in the
examination. The boys are under impression that if Shanker would start the cross examination of
the teachers, the teachers might be proved wrong. Some of the boys also believe that due to his
sycophancy, he learns all the solutions of his problems in advance. There is also a rumor that by
washing the clothes of teachers. Shanker manages to get ninety percentages in the exam. He has
good command over English language so he can talk in English with his teachers in the open
class. He knows everything about all the mountains, rivers and countries in the world. He knows
all the incidents of history so even in sleep he repeats the history. Grammar is a peanut for him.
His intelligence is reflected on the face.

Swami astoundingly looks at him and he becomes so happy when Mani includes him in
their company. Mani also likes him in his own way and puts his heavy and strong fist on
Shankar’s beck to demonstrate his affection towards him. When Mani sees Shankar, he scratches
his head and says from where have you got brain and why don’t you share it with others.

Like Somu, he also rums hostile to Swami when the latter becomes friendly with Rajam.
However, he soon drops out of Swami’s life as his father is transferred from Malgudi. He does
write to Swami, but then he forgets to give his address, so even correspondence with him is not
possible.

Samuel, called the Pea, because of his short stature, is the third of this group of friends.
He is an ordinary and average boy of the class. He is neither physically nor intellectually strong.
Like Swami, he is also weak in the calculation of arithmetic. Swami and Samuel are same in
many matters as many characteristics of both are same. He, too, turns hostile to Swami when he
becomes friendly with Rajam, and like the others, he, too, is reconciled through the efforts of
Rajam. In the next session, he is promoted to the higher class, but he comes to school late by
several months because of his illness. Then he has to arrange for medical certificates, etc., feels
much worried and harassed, and has little time for his friends. We get one last glimpse of him
when the M.C.C. is founded. He promises to bring the stumps for their team. But he fails to find
them, though he is sure that they are kept somewhere in the house.

The characters of Mani and Rajam have been developed more fully as their role in the
novel is much more significant. They are next in importance only to Swami himself. Mani is the
“Mighty Good-for-Nothing”. He towered above all the other boys of the class. He seldom
brought any books to the class, and never bothered about homework. He came to the class,
monopolized the last bench, and slept bravely.

No teacher ever tried to rouse him. It was said that a new teacher who once tried it very
nearly lost his life. Mani bullied all strangers that came his way, be they big or small. People
usually slunk aside when he passed. Wearing his cap at an angle, with a Tamil novel under his
arm, he had been coming to the school ever since the old school peon could remember. In most
of the classes, he stayed longer than his friends did. Swami was happy to be a friend of his.
Swami would admiringly ask whence Mani derived his power. Mani would reply that he had a
pair of wooden clubs at home with which he would break the backs of those that dared to temper
with him. Mani is the hero of Swami. His friendship with Mani shows that Swami wants to keep
on the right side of youth power. When Swami is nick-named “The Tail” Mani stands up for
him, and there is a fierce fight between Mani and Somu in the school compound. Their
friendship is unbreakable, it continues even during the school hour, after the school year and
even in vacation. They exchange visits and loaf about together, and at ease. No doubt, he is
jealous of Rajam and angry with Swami for being so very friendly with Rajam, but this rivalry is
short lived, and soon he, too, becomes quite friendly with Rajam, and henceforth the three are
usually seen together.
 When Swami is duped by the coachman, it is Mani who goes with him to decoy the
coachman’s son and teach him a lesson. It is another matter that the coachman’s son is too much
for them, and they suffer discomfiture at his hands. Similarly, he goes with Rajam to the
Headmaster of the Board High School to secure exemption for Swami from the drill period and
the scout-classes. He carries his clubs with him, and Rajam is able to hold out a veiled threat to
the Headmaster that he breaks skulls with his club.

Mani is one of the founder members of the M.C.C. and takes an active part in its
activities. He does his best to console Swami when he is heartbroken at the departure of Rajam
from Malgudi. Mani and Swami remain together up to the end, and we hope that their friendship
deepened and matured with the passing of time.

Rajam, the son of the Police Superintendent, is late to arrive but soon he becomes the
“dearest friend” of Swami. Rajam is a new comer in the class; First (A). On the first day of the
second term of the academic year, he enters into the class, walks strait and sits on the last bench
beside Mani. On the very first day, he feels comfortable in the class with all the boys. He
impresses the entire class on the first day itself. When Mani gives him a jab in the ribs, without
any fear and hesitation he returns it with the same energy. He has a good dressing sense. He is
the only students in the class, who wears socks and shoes, hangs tie over wonderful coat, fur cap
on his head. He comes to school in a car and he proves to be a clever and good student. It is
believed that he has come from English medium school of Madras. He has good command over
English language and speaks English as if he were a European. Many of his class mates dare not
to speak in English with him because they feel themselves inferior to him. Only Shankar, the
most intelligent students of the class can talk with him in English but he is also proved weak in
English in comparison with Rajam.

Rajam and Mani are competitors and rivals. Rajam is not inferior in any matter to Mani.
If Mani jabs, Rajam also jabs; if Mani clouts, he also clouts; if Mani kicks, he also kicks. If Mani
is powerful, he is not less in power in the class. Moreover, Rajam is a clever student whereas
Mani is not at all. Rajam always manages to cover seventy percentages or more than that i.e. he
is second only to Shankar in the class. Thus, it is proved that Rajam is a new power in the class.
As days pass, their struggle becomes more and more critical. It appears that something new is
going to be happened.

Rajam and Mani become rivals, and Mani threatens to break Swami’s limbs, if he found
him hanging round Rajam. He is pacified only when Swami assures him that Mani is still his
hero, and that he does not care much for him. Mani challenges Rajam to a duel and asks him to
come to a secluded spot near the river for the purpose. Mani comes with his clubs, and Rajam
with his gun. Swami acts as the chord of communication between the two, and in this way we get
an episode full of rollicking fun and delightful humour. The upshot is not a fight, but a friendship
between the two. The whole episode ends with all the three eating biscuits and shaking hands, to
the great relief of Swami.

Rajam is intelligent and has inborn qualities of leadership. He can go to the heart of a
situation, and act with tact and firmness. It is he who brings about reconciliation between Swami
and his former friends - Shanker, Somu, and the Pea. Again it is he who is the founder of the
M.C.C. and as its Captain arranges for various items they need, till their team becomes a reality.
It is he who writes letters, and challenges the Y.M.U. to a friendly cricket match. He takes the
initiative in going to the Headmaster of the Board High School to secure exemption for Swami
from the drill and scout classes. It is another matter that the meeting ends in a fiasco. Again, it is
he who suggests the plan for decoying the coachman’s son, so that they may get back Swami’s
money. The plan fails because it is not executed with sufficient tact and the coachman’s son is
cleverer than they had supposed him to be.

As the Police Superintendent’s son he is angry with Swami for having taken part in
“political activity”. He himself keeps aloof from such activity. He is highly offended and
displeased with Swami, when he, the Tate of their team, lets them down, and does not turn up for
the match. If he wants to run away, he should have taken them into confidence and told them so.
When Swami is brought back home, he does not himself go to meet him, and sternly forbids
Swami from coming to meet him. This is rather callous of him. We feel that he is insensitive, and
does not appreciate the love and friendship of Swami. He does not seem to be aware of the fact
that by his conduct he is causing deep anguish to a devoted friend.
 Soon he leaves Malgudi for good, and Swami is heart-broken at the exit of his “dearest
friend”, to whom he gives a parting present despite his callous conduct. We hope that Rajam was
softened by this affectionate attachment and wrote to him. At last it is with this hope that Mani
tries to console Swami.

Through the skill of characterisation, it is proved that Narayan is on the height in the
depiction and projection of the rainbow world of childhood and early boyhood. Narayan is a
keen observer of childhood; he has left nothing in the depiction of childhood in his novels.
Everything of children is narrated in his present novel. He describes the hatred, likes, dislikes,
joys, sorrow, boyish enjoyments, petty quarrels and broken and patched friendship of the
children in his novel. He has also depicted the psychology of grown-ups and he presents the
world of growns-up as appeared to the children. David Cecil remarks that:

Children are instinctive, they have strong imaginations,

vivid sensations; they see life as black or white, and bigger
than reality, their enemies seem demons, their friends
angels, their joys and sorrows are absolute and eternal.
The children have a tendency to exaggerate, and it
Requires great psychological insight and understanding to
paint the world from a child’s point of view. In this respect,
Narayan is to be compared with Dickens. To Swami,
Rajam appears a demigod as Steerforth appears to David.
Again, Mr. and Miss Murdstones are nothing short of
ogres to David’s immature intelligence, as is the son of the
tanga driver to Swami (Cecil: 1948, 48).

Thus, Narayan is best in the depiction of the child characters. He dives deep into the mind
and heart of his characters and presents them as they are. Narayan has minutely and closely
observed the children and has tried to understand them. He has also observed the likes, dislikes,
longing, fear, curiosity, ignorance, impression of others on the children etc and presented them
through these characters in the novel. Besides these children other characters like the teachers,
and the Headmasters of the two schools where Swami studies. At home, there are Swami’s
Grandmother, Father, Mother, and the newly-born baby brother. In the background stand such
minor figures as Rajam’s father, the Superintendent of Police, the Forest Officer, a coachman
and his son, Ranga, the Cart man, servants, cooks, the players of the Young Men’s Union Cricket
team, and the other schoolboys who have not been named. Attention has been focused
throughout on Swami, and the other characters, incidents and episodes are relevant only so far as
they serve to fill up and develop the character of Swami, who emerges as a fully rounded three
dimensional figure. The other characters appear or disappear or appear very late when the action
is well advanced. But Swami is there from the opening chapter upto the very end, when Rajam
leaves Malgudi for ever as his father has been transferred, and Swami is left with Mani, standing
alone and broken-hearted on the Malgudi Railway platform. Swami has come to life in the hands
of the novelist and is not only among the finest creations of R.K. Narayan, but also one among
the immortals of literature. It is a tribute to the novelist’s insight into child-psychology.

3.5 Exploration of Human Relationships

Narayan is a good observer of the society. He knows the importance and value of human
relation in one’s life. In his early novels, he has minutely depicts the various human relationships
such as relations between teachers and students, between classmates and friends, family relation
of husband and wife, father and son, grandson and grandmother etc. In the later novels,
Narayan’s observation becomes sharp and he focuses on complex kind of relation and focuses on
the sex and money matters. In his first novel, Swami and Friends he explores simple kind of
human relationships. Swami is a mere child and he is not yet conscious of money and sex.

Swami’s Father

First, Narayan has explored Swami’s relations with his parents, his granny, and his
newly-born baby brother. Swami is a day-scholar and a large part of his time is passed at home.
He is the apple of his parent’s eyes and is humoured and made much off by his granny. His
father may be a bit ‘fussy’, he is too insistent that Swami should study even during the vacations,
and comes in the way of his loafing about in. the company of his friends in the hot summer
afternoon. But he, too, loves him, is solicitous of his welfare and always comes to his help when
things go wrong. He allows Swami to use his room for Rajam’s visit, tries that Swami should
pass his vacations profitably, searches for him when he runs away from home, and sets matters
right with the Board High School so that Swami is again taken in. It is a middle class family
where there is little money to spare. That is why he brushes aside Swami’s list of his examination
needs, for he certainly does not need all those items. But he is very much annoyed when he finds
that Swami does not have suitable clothes for going with him to the club and proposes to
purchase for him the requisite clothes at the earliest.

Swami’s Granny

Swami’s granny, too, loves Swami and his evenings are passed with her. She tells him
stories from Hindu mythology and it is in this way that Swami acquires his knowledge of Hindu
gods, and the well-known figures and episodes of Hindu mythology. Swami is shocked at her
ignorance of cricket and of the names of well-known cricketers, and tries to educate her in this
respect, but has to give up the attempt in sheer disgust. She is ‘senile’ and incapable of learning.
The granny loves her, and Swami fully reciprocates her love. When granny suffers from colic
and wants Swami to get for her some fresh lemons from the market. Swami is in a hurry to reach
the cricket field and so does not go to the market. But all the time he suffers from pangs of
conscience, for his granny might be writhing with pain, while he himself is enjoying cricket. On
return home, he is much relieved to find that she was alright. When Swami disappears from
home, his granny is restless and walks up and down the room, though it is most unusual for her
to do so.

The Mother

Swami’s mother is a pious, domestic lady who does her best to minister to the needs of
the family and to provide Swami with delicious dishes. She is a kind and affectionate mother
who loves her son, but also sees to it that her love does not spoil the son. That is why she tells
her husband that Swami goes out in the afternoons and loafs about with his friends. But later,
when he pretends to be ill, she is easily taken in, and is all anxiety and affectionate care. When
the baby brother of Swami arrives she, quite naturally, has to devote greater attention and time to
the baby, but Swami is in no way neglected. When Swami disappears from home, she is almost
mad with grief and weeps constantly.

Swami’s Friends

Swami’s friendship is depicted in the novel on the major scale with minute details.
Swami’s fast friends are Mani and Rajam with whom he shares all his likes and dislikes, joys and
sorrows and problems. He looks at them as a demigod. He seeks advices and helps from them. In
the entire novel, they are seen together during the school hours, after the school hours and even
during the summer vacation. They visit each other’s home even in the hot summer during the
noons. They share things among them without partiality and hesitation. In many mischievous
acts, adventures and misadventures they are involved and help each other in any critical
situation. Swami’s friendship with other friends like Somu, Pea and Shankar is limited to school
and it is impersonal. In the middle of the novel, their friendship is drop out in the beginning of
the second academic term of the school. From beginning to end, Swami, Mani and Rajam are
together and even at the end of the novel, Rajam leaves Malgudi for good, Swami and Mani are
left together.

The Teachers

Swami is a student not of an English Public School, but of an Indian school where there
is no fagging system. The real tyrants here are not the senior boys, but the teachers. Swami
attends two schools, and the headmasters of both the schools are harsh and unsympathetic. They
are too fond of humiliating and caning the students. Swami is unable to bear this tyranny and so
he runs away from both these schools. No doubt, he is rash and impulsive, no doubt he is in the
wrong, but a little of sympathetic understanding of his child-like nature would have been
sufficient to bring him to the right path, to reform and educate him, but both the headmasters are
utterly lacking in such sympathy. At the Albert Mission School, Ebenezar, the Scripture teacher,
is a fanatic tyrant and is always criticising the Hindu gods. When Swami puts awkward
questions, he comes and twists his ears causing him great pain. At the Board High School, there
is the drill-master, always, cursing and abusing the boys, always ready to thrash them at the
slightest provocation.

The Wider Social World

Swami’s relationships with the wider social world have also been studied. First, his
yearning for a hoop, brings him into contact with a coachman who dupes him and cheats him of
twelve paises. Swami tries to recover the money with the help of Mani and Rajam, and they are
this time duped by the coachman’s son, who runs away with a top, and threatens to stab. Swami.
Henceforth Swami is mortally afraid of him, and goes about in terror of his life. His childish
imagination much exaggerates his powers and the harm that he can cause. Where he runs away
from home and Malgudi, a Forest Officer takes care of him, informs his father of his
whereabouts, and so Swami returns to his home. But he regrets that at the time of his parting
from the kindly gentleman, he did not thank him or say good-bye to him.

Swami’s relations with the wider social world, also assumes the form of his ‘political
activity’ which consists merely of breaking window-panes. Swami’s friendship with Mani and
Rajam shows that he knew how to be on the right side of ‘student-power’ but his “political
activity” puts him on the ‘wrong side’ of the law, and he has to face the consequences. He
himself realises that it would have been much better for him to have stayed at home on that
fateful day. Such political activity was not for a mere child-like him.

3.6 Presentation of Indian Life

R.K. Narayan is an Indian writing in English and Indianness is to be seen both in the
theme of his novels, and in his treatment of the themes. The present novel is no exception in this
respect.

Depiction of Indian School Life

Swami and Friends is a great classic of ‘school boy’ fiction. The school-world depicted in
the novel, is the world of Indian school-boys and not an English world. In India most of the
students are day-scholars, and pass most of their time at home, and hence the depiction of
Swami’s home life. There is no fagging-system, as in English schools. The senior boys are not
the tyrants; if at all there are tyrants, they are the teachers and the Headmasters. In all these
respects, Narayan is true to the reality of the Indian scene.

The Indian Setting

The setting, too, is typically Indian. Malgudi is a South Indian town, it is a microcosm of
the macrocosm, life as it is lived in Malgudi is the life as it is lived all over the country. Even the
Indian struggle for Independence has been brought in and there are agitations, strikes and lathi-
charges, such as were taking place all over the country in those memorable days.

Story-Teller in the Indian Tradition

Narayan is a story-teller in the Indian tradition. His narration is straightforward and

chronological. Episodes follow episodes in quick succession and the construction is rather loose
and episodic. This is true of the present novel also. There are a number of episodes, and the only
unity they have is the unity of the hero, i.e., the same personage is at the centre of all of them.
However, there is no superfluity, for each of the episodes illuminates one aspect or the other of
Swami’s personality, and contributes to build a rounded three dimensional figure. The narration
is straight forward, there are no flash-backs. However, in the chapters dealing with the running
away of Swami from home “the stream of consciousness” technique has been used to give us a
peep into his suffering soul.

Further, in the Indian tradition of story-telling disorder is followed by the restoration of

order and return to normalcy. Thus the disorder created by Swami’s running away soon comes to
an end with his return home, peace is restored in the disturbed family, normal life once again
becomes possible. Swami’s family is happy, and Swami himself is to go to the Board High
School as before.

Indian Stress on Family-ties

Narayan has a great regard for family ties and pieties of the home and the family. Human
relationships, particularly domestic relationships, occupy a central place in his novels. This stress
on the role of the family shows his Indianness. In the present novel also, the family plays an
important role in moulding the personality of Swami. His granny tells him stories from Indian
myths and legends, and so his mind is well-stocked with the stories of Hindu gods and
goddesses, and myths and legends. His mother loves him, prepares delicious dishes for him, and
his father, though a bit fussy about his education, is kind and gentle in his own way as is shown
by the fact that he affectionately takes him to his club, and is much pained to find that he does
not have proper clothes.

Religious and Superstitious

Narayan’s Indianness is also seen in his exploitation of the Indian faith in religion, and of
their superstitious and credulous nature. Thus Swami easily believes that the coachman would be
able to multiply his money by the use of some magic formula which he knows. He also believes
that gods, if they are kind, can turn stones into coins. When his stones are not turned into coins,
he is angry with the gods. But he is afraid of their wrath and does not say a word against them,
for fear of divine punishment. AH alone on the road, he is mortally afraid of ghosts, demons and
evil spirits and prays to the gods for their protection.

One Deviation: No Obtrusive Morality

But in one important respect he deviates from the Indian tradition. He steers clear of
didacticism, he makes no attempt to preach or deliver a message. He is perhaps a moral analyst,
an analyst of character and conduct, but he does not attempt to impose his views on his readers.
“He is an analyst of individual feelings, emotions and actions, in an exploration of hidden human
conflicts. Nowhere in his novels does he preach or pontificate in the Indian tradition.” Even if
there is a message, it is never obtrusive. Thus in the present novel Narayan’s message is that any
escape from reality, however harsh it may be, is futile, one must accept life and its reality, and
adjust his conduct accordingly. It is the lesson which Swami learns, and this is Narayan’s
message, but it is not obtrusive. It has not been stated, in so many words. It has been worked out
through the action, and it is for the readers to interpret it according to their own light.

Indian Imagery and Vocabulary

Narayan’s Indianness is also seen in his use of imagery drawn from the Indian scene, and
his language, both in its vocabulary and its syntax, is the language commonly used by educated
Indians. His vocabulary is limited, but by this limited vocabulary he has fashioned for himself an
instrument of common use for the Indian scene. With his limited language, he is yet able to
evoke the common rhythm of life as it is lived in South India. The welter and vitality of that
scene, the absurdities, the pretensions, and the excitements of traditional routine are all brought
out with the precious touch of Narayan’s irony, an irony that accepts and has reverence for the
humble business of existence.

3.7 The Elements of Regional Novel

A regional novel is a novel which deals with the physical features, people, life, customs,
habits, manners, traditions, language, etc., of a particular locality. The regional artist emphasises
the unique features of a particular locality. However, this does not mean that regionalism is mere
factual reporting or photographic reproduction. The regional artist emphasises the unique
features of a particular locality, its uniqueness, the various ways in which it differs from other
localities. But as in all other art, so also in regional art, there is a constant selection and ordering
of material. In other words, regional art is also creative. Through proper selection and ordering of
his material, the novelist stresses the distinctive spirit of his chosen region and shows, further,
that life in its essentials is the same everywhere. The differences are used as a means of revealing
similarities; from the particular and the local the artist rises to the general and the universal. The
selected region becomes a symbol of the world at large, a microcosm which reflects the great
world beyond. Narayan is a regional novelist in this higher creative sense. Like Hardy’s Wessex,
Malgudi is the chosen region which forms the background to the works of Narayan, whether
novels or short stories. According to Srinivasa Iyengar:

Malgudi is Narayan’s Casterbridge, but the inhabitants of

Malgudi, although they may have their recognizable local
trappings, are essentially human, and hence, have their
 kinship with all humanity. In this sense, Malgudi is
everywhere (Iyengar: 2006, 359).

Malgudi: “A Country of the Mind”

Malgudi, the locale of all the novels of Narayan, is a metaphor for India. It is a typically
south Indian town, and it has been presented in his work vividly and realistically. Even its past
history is given, and in successive novels we see it changing, growing and becoming different.
All the ten novels and most of the short stories are set in Malgudi. Various critics have attempted
to identify the original of this mythical town. Srinivasa Iyengar speculates that it might be
Lalgudi on the Kaveri or Yadavagiri in Mysore. Others are of opinion that Narayan’s Malgudi is
Coimbatore which has many of the landmarks: a river on one side, forests on the other, the
mission school and college and all the extensions mentioned in the novels. But all efforts to
identify Malgudi have remained futile, for it is a pure “country of the mind” and not any town
which exists on the map of India.

The Landmarks

Malgudi is an imaginary village of Narayan, which is reflected in his major novels. It is

situated beside the bank of Sarayu river somewhere in the South India. Nallappa’s Mango Grove
and the Mempi Forest are very near to Malgudi town.

There is a Trunk Road to Trichinipoly. One can board the train for Madras at the Malgudi
Station. Within the town there is the Market Road. This road intersects the Race Course Road.
There are various streets and lanes: Kabir Street and Kabir Lane, Anderson Lane, Sarayu Street,
Kulam Street, Vinayaka Mudali Street, Abu Lane, Ellaman Street (the last street) Keelacheri -
tell-tale names in the Tamil country.

Like Delhi and New Delhi there are old and new towns. Extensions are everywhere. The
Extensions have cross roads and trim houses. There is Lawley Extension named after Sir
Fredrick Lawley, but later renamed as Gandhi Nagar. Even in the early thirties, Malgudi has a
municipality, a Town Hall, a Club, and two schools,—the Albert Mission School and the Board
High School. The school-boys are cricket conscious, and talk of Bradman, Hobbs and Tate. In
1930, Swami is a pupil, first in the Albert Mission and later in the Board High School. The
Mission School grows into Albert Mission College. We hear of motor cars and Swami has an
exciting ride to the Club in the car of his father’s friend.

Malgudi is a district headquarter, and as such there is a Superintendent of Police, Rajam’s

father, and a number of officers and policemen come to see him off at the railway station when
he is transferred from Malgudi.

Typical Indian Life: Mingling of the East and the West

Life in Malgudi follows the same rhythm as in the other Indian towns. Indian struggle for
independence comes to Malgudi also, and there are public speeches, bonfires of foreign goods
and agitations, strikes and window-smashing, processions, slogan-shouting, and lathi-charges. It
is a curious mixture of the East and the West, of the ancient and the modern. Writes William
Walsh in this connection:

The details suggest, surely and economically, the special

flavour of Malgudi, a blend of oriental and pre-1914 British,
like an Edwardian mixture of sweet mangoes and malt vinegar
- a wedding with its horoscopes and gold-edged, elegantly
printed, invitation cards; tiny shops with the shopkeeper
haunched on the counter selling plantations, betel-leaves, snuff
and English biscuits, the casuarina and the Post Office Savings
Bank, the brasspots and the volumes of Milton and Carlyle,
the shaved head and ochre robes of the sanayasi and Messrs
Binns catalogue of cricket bats. Especially is this true of the
details of public life, of the shabby swarming streets and the
stiffling bye-lanes, the cobbles of Market Road and the sands
on Sarayu bank, the banyan tree outside the central Co-
operative Land Mortage Bank (built in 1914) the glare of
Kitson lamps and the open drain down Vinayaka Mudali
 Street. Even the names strengthen this double quality.
Nallappa’s Grove and Albert College, Mill Street and the
Bombay Ananda Bhavan (a restaurant), Kabir Street and
Lawley Extension, the Mempi Hills and the Board School,
while Malgudi Station implies both Euston and the East, and
the Krishna Medical Hall is both ancient and modern medicine
(Walsh: 1982, 189).

In Swami and Friends the mingling and friction of two civilizations are explicitly seen.
Narayan’s homely and intimate registration of the double; Indian-English sensibility is depicted
by presenting Sarayu river and Albert Mission School. Sarayu river is the place where children
play everyday whereas children get education from Albert Mission School. The word M.C.C.
sands for both Malgudi and the Marylebone Cricket Club. Narayan has narrated and depicted the
Lord of Thirupathy, a god of South India, Rajam’s toy railway engine, the policemen rushing
towards crowd with upraised lathis when the school is involved in a riot, the Indian headmaster
with his distinctly English cane giving the boys six on each hand, Junior Willard bats, small
pooja room in which many posters of gods are kept and the fragrance of flowers, incense and
camphor, Indian betel leaves, pure ghee, coconut, areka nut, plates of sweets, tea – coffee
tumblers on the other hand Narayan has depicted the tennis club in his novels.

Mingling of the Old and the New

The world which is delicately established in Swami and Friends is not only Indian and
British, not only East and West, but also ancient and modern. Moreover, we find insinuated into
the fresh and accurate documentation, hints and suggestions lodged tactfully here and there, of
the continental vastness and variety of India in which this provincial life is set. There is, for
example, the Trunk Road vanishing into the mysterious distance, there is the menacing jungle at
its edge, there is the railway station from which one’s friends and their families can be suddenly
transported to continue their lives and careers a thousand miles away. There is also political
agitation in Malgudi sparked off by the arrest of a patriot in Bombay, and thus is suggested the
struggle for India’s independence, going on all over the subcontinent, with the police obeying the
orders of the red men who have come from across the seven-seas. Thus the vaster and the wider
world around is suggested at every step.

Universality

Narayan may be regional, but he is never parochial. By careful selection and ordering of
material, Malgudi is made a symbol of India as a whole, a microcosm of the macrocosm.
Narayan’s psychological insight imparts rare veracity to his depiction of life and character. We
feel that the quality of life in Malgudi is also the quality of life everywhere, that man is
motivated by the same passions and impulses in all countries and places, and in this way the
regional is raised to the level of the universal. The school boy world as presented in the novel is
universally true, for it is the same everywhere. Boys are basically the same, whether in Malgudi
or anywhere else in the world.

3.8 The Elements of Humour, Irony and Satire

Narayan is the greatest of the humorists among the Indo-Anglian novelists. His humour is
all-pervasive and most varied. We get in him farcical humour or humour of situation, humour of
character, or humour arising from the old and the grotesque in character and person. We also get
in him verbal humour arising from jokes, jests, repartees, retorts, and by the clever use of
language in various ways. His humour often mingles with pathos, and then we smile through our
tears. He can be comic even at the moments of highest tragedy.

Satiric humour is also there in his novels. He satirises greedy businessmen and money-
lenders, extorting house-owners, black-marketeers and profiteers, or producers of obscene films,
fake sadhus and credulous simpletons, but his satire is so mild and gentle that it is often difficult
to decide whether Narayan is being satiric, or he is merely exposing and ridiculing for the
amusement of his readers. His humour is genial and kindly, for he accepts life as it is, with all its
follies and foibles, and is not carried away by the zeal of the reformer. By nature he is a humorist
and not a satirist.

However, it is to be remembered “Narayan’s sense of the comic is sustained not by the

Dickensian kind of exaggeration but rather, if a comparison has to be made to enlist
understanding and evoke responses, by the irony of understatement practised by a Jane Austen”.
He deals with common and the ordinary, his intention being to show the uncommon and the
extraordinary inherent in the common, an he does so by focusing “attention, in one novel after
another, on the discrepancy between actuality and aspiration.

Narayan’s vision of life is essentially comic and its characteristic notes are struck in the
very first novel Swami and Friends. In the very beginning of the novel, Swami stands face to
face with his teacher, examines his face closely, criticises it, and this deflation of the teacher is
highly comic. But ironically enough, at that very moment, the teacher flings his notebook on his
face with the remark, “Very bad”. The preparations for the examination, of Swami and his
friends, which consist of an elaborate listing of their needs, is highly amusing, and so are their
imitations of the agitated talk of their elders, about the political events of the day.

The narration of school incidents is full of fun, which are entirely natural. When Mani
and Rajam quarrel with each other, Swami becomes mediator between them. Swami conveys
Mani’s messages to Rajam and Rajam’s messages to Mani. Due to their diplomatic relations,
quarrel takes place between Mani and Rajam. Humour emerges when we see that two boys
Rajam and Mani employ Swami as their mediator in fact they are very close to each other on the
ground. This is illustrated by the following:

“When the work for the day was over, Swaminathan,

Mani, and Rajam, adjourned to a secluded spot to say what
was in their minds. Swaminathan stood between them and
acted as the medium of communication. They were so close
that they could have heard each other even if they had
spoken in whispers. But it was a matter of form between
enemies to communicate through a medium Mani faced
Swaminathan steadily and asked, ‘Are you a man?’ Rajam
flared up and shouted, ‘Which dog doubts it’ Swaminathan
turned to Mani and said ferociously, ‘Which dirty dog
 doubts it?’”

“Have you the courage to prove that you are a man?”

asked Mani

Swaminathan turned to Rajam and repeated it.

‘How?’

‘How?’ repeated Swaminathan to Mani.

‘Meet me at the river, near Nallappa’s Grove, tomorrow

evening.’

‘-Near Nallappa’s Grove’, Swaminathan was pleased to

echo.

‘What for?’ asked Rajam.

‘To see if you can break my head.’

‘Oh, to pieces,’ said Rajam.

Swaminathan’s services were dispensed with. They gave

him to time to repeat their words. Rajam shouted in one
ear, and Mani in the other” (Narayan: 2010, 40).

As per their commitment when they meet each other on the Sarayu river nothing happens
between them. However, clubs and guns are brought but fight cannot take place between them.
On the contrary, they become friends and enjoy biscuit together.

The incidents of cricket talk and preparations for the cricket match are very humorous.
They are talking about the different cricket players and watching the cricket players’ pictures.
There is a great excitement for the naming the club. Every member of the team suggesting
various names such as: Friends Eleven, Jumping stars, Excelsiors, Champion Eleven, and finally
the simple Malgudi Cricket Club because of its irresistible magical associations with the M.C.C.
The boys are talking about the playing bat. One of them says that the bat is wonderful and heavy.
It seems that there are springs inside the bat so that when ball touches it, the ball flies in the air.
These non-entities called ‘M.C.C. Malgudi’ write to the sports dealers in Madras—the language
and the easy confidence behind which there is neither cash nor credit, prompting the dealers to
honour the letter. The rest of the novel deals with cricket practice and the match which demands
absence from class on grounds that keep shifting, but the best which Narayan exploits is a
malapropism in language, since Swami brings it up, as the most effective: he complains of the
most violent type of ‘delirium’, and when the Headmaster exposes him; Swami decides to run
from the school. He wants to escape somewhere in Madras but on the half way of Malgudi, he
collapses and fainted down in the way to forest. At Swami’s home, his parents and grandmother
worry about him and offering prayers to the god to bring Swami back. Finally, Swami is brought
by the Forest Officer to his home and then his parents take breath peacefully.

Through the distinct perceptions of a distinct age, Narayan creates comedy scenes in his
novels. The perceptions of a boy differ from the perceptions of the adults. Narayan has presented
his observations; in the episode in which Swami’s father tries to teach him through which his
awareness of incongruities and discrepancies is clearly seen. The conversation between Swami
and his father is given below:

“How many days is it since you have touched your books?”

father asked as he blew off the fine layers of dust on
Swaminathan’s books, and cleared the web that an
industrious spider was weaving between a corner of the
table and the pile of books.

Swaminathan viewed this question as a gross breach of

promise.

“Should I read when I have no school?”

“Do you think you have passed the B.A.?” Father asked.
 “I mean, father when the school is closed, when there is no
examination, even then should I read?”

“What a question. You must read.”

“But father you said before the examinations that I needn’t

read after they were over. Even Rajam does not read”
(Narayan: 2010, 58 )

To make his argue strong, Swami cites the example of Rajam. He says to his father that
Rajam, the cleverest student of our class he does not read during the vacation. At the same time
he all of sudden he remembers Rajam’s complaint of his tuition teacher who comes for two hours
a day thrice a week. Rajam has to tolerate his home tutor who pesters him for two hours even in
the vacation. However, father cannot utter a single word against his argument but he stands over
Swami. Father orders him to blow out the dust over his books and to clean his table. As Swami
receives orders from his father, he executed the order within no time. He starts to blow out dust
over his books. He carefully catches the industrious spider, takes it to the window and throws it
outside the window. After throwing spider outside the window, he observes it for a while. It is
swinging from a strand that gleams in a hundred nice and delicate tints. His father gets angry on
him and says will you waste the whole day to throw out the spider. All of sudden, an idea comes
in his mind that he wants a companion like spider so he does not throw it out but secretly keeps
the spider inside his pocket and he pretends it by shaking his hands outside the window. He
returns to his father and resumes his duty.

In the other incident when his father gives an arithmetic lesson, Narayan’s observation is
clearly seen. After half an hour, Swami sits in his father’s room with slate and pencil. His father
puts a sum before him by saying that Rama wants to earn fifteen annas from ten mangoes, which
he has with him. Krishna wants to buy only four mangoes. How much will Rama demand form
Krishna for four mangoes? To this question, Swami gazes and gazes with a strange sight but he
cannot get any answer. He reads the sum often and often and every time he receives a new
meaning of his reading. He behaves as if he were trapped in a maze test. At one hand, he thinks
to solve the answer of the given sum whereas on the other hand, he thinks about the mangoes and
his mouth begins to water. He thinks about Rama that why he wants fifteen annas for his ten
mangoes. What type of person Rama is! He now compares Rama with Shankar and thinks that if
he is like Shankar no one can help him to make fifteen annas from his ten mangoes. Further, he
compares Krishna with the Pea and shows uncountable sympathy for him. His father was reading
a newspaper when Swami is thinking about mangoes, Rama and Krishna. His father demands
solution of the sum from Swami. Swami puts a question that whether mangoes are ripe or not. To
this remark, his father laughs at him and again demands for solution. Swami becomes helpless
and cannot utter even a single word. He thinks if father might have told him whether the
mangoes are ripe or not, he may solve the sum. He is put in trouble by his father’s arithmetic
sum.

We can see here Narayan’s delicate feeling for the boy’s fleeting attention, and his
understanding of the gap between the concrete poetic attention of the child and formidable
abstract arithmetical dryness he is supposed to be mastering.” Here humour results from the
discrepancy between the poetic and concrete perceptions of Swami and the abstract arithmetical
dryness which he is required to master. To the adult father Swami is an inattentive dullard, a
good-for nothing, who must be educated and reformed; to the child-like Swami his father is an
intrusive, annoying and bumbling adult who should either be managed and subdued or escaped
from at the earliest. Insight into such gap in perception and the resulting incongruities, are an
important source of the comic in Narayan. His comic vision is, indeed, unique.

Nor is satiric humour lacking. We have already noted Narayan’s deflation of the teacher.
The Headmaster, found sleeping without his specs, and looking shabby and unimpressive, is
another example of Narayan’s habitual deflation of teacher. Narayan is constantly exposing and
ridiculing religious fanaticism and credulity also. The Scripture master, Ebenezar, condemns
Hindu idolatory and show Sri Krishna in a very bad light, in comparison to Jesus, asking:

“Did our Jesus go gadding about with dancing girl like

your Krishna? ....Did our Jesus practise dark tricks on
those around him ?” Swaminathan replies by putting a
counter question: ‘If he did not, why was he crucified
(Narayan: 2010, 36).
 Narayan’s humour here is ironic-satiric’ For Swaminathan, all solemnity with which
religions are paraded is meaningless, and when he finds that his father’s complaint against
Ebenezar may cause some unpleasantness to him, he feels that he would not mind about what
Ebenezar thinks about the Hindu Gods. Thousand ill thoughts of hundred Ebenezars cannot
shatter the faith in God. Narayan has very skillfully narrated the reaction of Swami towards the
God. When he prays to God to convert his pebbles into money, his all efforts go in vain. His
angry reaction when pebbles fail to convert, throws further light on the dangerous oppressiveness
which religious superstition can cast on its victims.

Thus, Narayan has very cleverly put the elements of humour, satire and irony in the
present work through his characters and his lucid language. Narayan is a very simple novelist
because he uses simple English, simple characters and strait forward story of his works and he
tries to please his readers.

3.9 Conclusion

To conclude it can be said novel possesses loose and episodic plot. However, Swami, the
protagonist of the novel, is not a picaro; novel has all the picaresque characteristics of its
construction. All the incidents and episodes of the novel are interwoven in such a way that three
unities; unity of time, unity of place and unity of action are achieved. All the incidents and
episodes are clustered round Swami. In a picaresque novel, characters appear and disappear in
the various episodes and incidents but they never meet again in the story. As novel advances,
new characters with their strange adventures are introduced. The emphasis is made on the
incidents and not on the characters in a picaresque novel. Most of the characters in a picaresque
novel are thin and shadowy figures. In the most cases, the logical unity of cause and effect is
lacking, number of incidents and their order can easily be changed. However, all the incidents
and episodes revolve around Swami and other boys, which present the rainbow world of the
children. Further, the action is not confined merely to “the boys world” but is also equally
concerned with the ‘domestic world’ of Swami. The action moves from the home to the school,
and from the school to the playground. Later, the scope of the novel is further widened by
bringing in the Indian struggle for independence, and showing its impact on Malgudi,
particularly on the “boys’ world”.
 The novel, is short, is a great work of art, and very creditable as a first attempt. As
Graham Greene, to whom it was sent for review, said, it is, “a book in ten thousands”. R.K.
Narayan never went to school in England, nor was he a bright student, still he has created a great
work of art which must take its place with the great English masterpieces dealing with the school
world and boyish adventures. It is an ideal work for study in the school and colleges of the
English speaking world. Written in an easy, simple, but dignified, language, its charm is further
heightened by the vivid and graphic pencil-sketches provided by Narayan’s brother, R.K.
Laxman.