RK Narayan – #100FavouriteAuthors
Malgudi Days!
Remember this title theme track?
If you grew up in India in the 90s, there’s no way you don’t remember this. It’s from Malgudi Days, one of India’s most loved TV series, which was adapted from a collection of short stories by the same name. RK Narayan brought the beautiful, simple world of Malgudi to all of us.
His style of writing was delightfully simple.
His stories were always filled with everyday people — a next-door neighbour uncle/aunt, a visiting cousin, or just the friends you had down the street. He didn’t use any fancy twists or gimmicks to heighten emotion or induce forced laughs. His stories always gave me a warm smile, once I’d finished reading them. Some of my favourite stories from Malgudi Days are An Astrologer’s Day, The Tiger’s Claw, The Blind Dog and Gateman’s Gift.
My other favourite stories include Swami and Friends, which was his first novel and introduced us to the quaint little town of Malgudi. A more famous story of his was The Guide, which was adapted into an award-winning film (of the same name) starring Dev Anand and Waheeda Rehman.
If ever you need to feel good on a dreary day, cozy up at home, pick up an RK Narayan book and read. It’ll help, what with the monsoons around the corner…
Archives
Neil Gaiman | Agatha Christie | Jeffrey Archer | Sidney Sheldon | Enid Blyton | Ruskin Bond | Roald Dahl | Stieg Larsson | RK Narayan
