WAITING FOR MAHATMA (Vintage Classics)

Literature & Fiction

R.K.Narayan

Contemporary

Vintage

The English teacher

This novel completes the informal trilogy which began with "Swami and Friends" and "The Bachelor of Arts," The protagonist, Krishna, is an English teacher at the same college he had attended as a student. Although Krishna has recently married, his wife Susila and their daughter live with his parents-in-law some miles away. The story opens with his immediate family deciding to join him in Malgudi. Krishna is initially frightened by his new state of affairs, but he soon finds that his love for both his wife and child grows deeper than he could have imagined. "Mr. Narayan has repeatedly been compared with Chekhov. Ordinarily such comparisons are gratuitous and strained, but in this case there are such clear and insistent echoes that any careful reader will be aware of them. There is that sense of rightness which transcends mere structure. There is the inexplicable blending of tragedy and humor. Most of all, there is a brooding awareness of fate which makes the story seem not authored, but merely translated."--J.F. Muehl, "Saturday Review" "[Narayan] does not deal in exemplary fates, and the Western novel's machinery of retribution is far too grandiose for him. . . . In Narayan's world, scores are not settled but dissolved, recycled, restated. 'Both of us will shed our forms soon and perhaps we could meet again, who knows? So goodbye for the present.' These are the concluding words for the novel "A Tiger for Malgudi," but they constitute a universal epilogue one could append to most of Narayan's fiction."--Russell Davies, "Times Literary Supplement"

The English Teacher

Vintage Books

An unusual and witty travel book about the United States of America. At the age of fifty, when most people have settled for the safety of routine, R. K. Narayan left India for the first time to travel through America. In this account of his journey, the writer s pen unerringly captures the clamour and energy of New York city, the friendliness of the West Coast, the wealth and insularity of the Mid-West, the magnificence of the Grand Canyon...Threading their way through the narrative are a host of delightful characters from celebrities like Greta Garbo, Aldous Huxley, Martha Graham, Cartier Bresson, Milton Singer, Edward G. Robinson and Ravi Shankar to the anonymous business tycoon on the train who dismissed the writer when he discovered Narayan had nothing to do with India s steel industry. As a bonus, there are wry snapshots of those small but essential aspects of American life muggers, fast food restaurants, instant gurus, subway commuters, TV advertisements, and American football. An entrancing and compelling travelogue about an endlessly fascinating land.

My Dateless Diary: An American Journey

Biographies & Memoirs

Penguin

One of India s finest novelists retells the two great Indian epics as well as some well-known tales from Hindu mythology and folklore. While the eleventh century Tamil poet Kamban s version inspires his Ramayana, Narayan s Mahabharata is based on Vyasa s monumental work. In Gods, Demons and Others, he includes stories from Kalidasa s Sanskrit classic Abhijnana Shakuntalam, the Tamil epic Silappadikaram, the Shiv Purana and the Devi Bhagwatam.

The Indian Epics Retold: The Ramayana, The Mahabharata, Gods Demons and Others

S. Krishnan

Penguin??Books

Collection of writings on Indian philosophy, poetics and literature, an original volume

Indian thought: A miscellany

World Literature

Penguin books.India

Emerald Route

In a writing career spanning seven decades, R.K. Narayan enthralled and entertained generations of readers with his deftly etched characters, his uniquely stylized language and his wry sense of humour. A storyteller par excellence, Narayan's greatest achievement perhaps lies in creating and peopling the imagined landscapes of a town called Malgudi, located somewhere in South India, which has come alive in story after story in such a way that it has now become a part of modern Indian folklore. This collection brings between two covers some of the most memorable fiction that has emerged from R.K. Narayan's pen. It contains The Man-eater of Malgudi, which tells the story of Nataraj, owner of a small printing press, and his houseguest Vasu, a taxidermist, who moves into Nataraj's attic with a menagerie of dead animals. There is also Talkative Man, a novella that starts off with the arrival on the Delhi train of a stranger in a blue suit who takes up residence in the station waiting room and refuses to budge. Also included here are some of the most popular and striking short stories Narayan has written: from the celebrated -A Horse and Two Goats' and -Salt and Sawdust' to gems like -An Astrologer's Day', -The Shelter' and -Under the Banyan Tree'. Encapsulating the very best of R.K. Narayan's remarkable output, this is a fitting tribute to one of the greatest modern writers in the English language.

A Town Called Malgudi

This is R.K. Narayan's classic chronicle of the adventures of a boy named Swami, and his friends Rajam and Mani, in a sleepy and picturesque South Indian town called Malgudi. Swami's days are full of action??"when he is not creating a ruckus in the classroom or preparing in his inimitable way for exams, he's trying to acquire a hoop from the coachman's son to run down the Malgudi streets, playing tricks on his grandmother, or stoning the school windows, inspired by a swadeshi demonstration. But the greatest feat of Swami and his friends lies in putting together a cricket team for the ???MCC' (the Malgudi Cricket Club) and challenging the neighbouring Young Men's Union to a match. Just before the match, however, things go horribly, horribly wrong, and Swami has no option but to run away from home, wanting never to return to Malgudi again . Malgudi Schooldays is a brilliantly evocative and delightfully funny account of the growing-up years from one of the greatest English language writer

The World of Malgudi: Mr. Sampath / The Financial Expert / The Painter of Signs / A Tiger for Malgudi

"The Mahabharata" is some 3,500 years old and is the longest poem in any language. It is one of the founding epics of Indian culture and, with its mixture of cosmic drama and profound philosophy (one small section forms the Bhaghavad Gita) it holds aunique place in world literature. In this drastically shortened prose rendering, Narayan uses all his extraordinary talents to convey to a modern reader why this is such a great story. Filled with vivid characters, obsessed with the rise and fall of gods, empires and heroes, Narayan's "Mahabharata" is an enormously enjoyable experience and the perfect introduction to the otherwise bewildering Indian cosmology.

The Mahabharata

Parenting & Relationships

Penguin Group(CA)

Set in pre-independent India, Malgudi Schooldays revolves around little Swami and his many adventures in the fictional town of Malgudi. Swami, the protagonist, is a young boy who does not really enjoy school. Often indulging in pranks, school for Swami is a terrible burden.  Gazing at trains, entertaining himself by noting different hairstyles and caps, breaking the principal s window, and running away from school are just a few of the antics that comprise the schooldays of the protagonist.  Swami, Somu, Mani, Samuel and Shankar are very good friends who often indulge in adventures together. But the dynamics are all about to change when the intelligent and bold Rajam enters the group. The Malgudi Cricket Club or MCC is started and Swami is elected to be the team s bowler. A star of the team, Swami soon is faced with a new problem. He has to attend the school drill and the cricket coaching at the same time.  How will Swami handle the new boy? Will Swami be able to attend the cricket coaching? Or will his misadventures get him into further trouble? Malgudi Schooldays is a highly invigorating account of the nostalgic school days of Swami and his friends.  Written from the perspective of the young troublemaker, the book revisits the innocence, imagination, and simpler times of childhood.  This edition of Malgudi Schooldays by Penguin classics was published in 2009 and is popular among the young and old alike. It is inclusive of an introduction by Shashi Deshpande.

Malgudi Schooldays

Motilal UK Books of India

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