thyreader

[thyreader]

The Man-Eater of Malgudi by RK Narayan

Are you trying to introduce your kid to the world of literature?

Are you looking for a thoughtful gift for a niece/nephew or any other child around?

Are you exhausted and looking forward to an effortless, humorous, engaging read?

Are you searching for the essence of India?

The Man-Eater of Malgudi IS your answer.

This work of RK Narayan is a cocktail of every literary genre, with a personal touch of Narayan- it has drama, mystery, thrill and humor accentuated by a series of eccentric characters, placed in a fictional town of Malgudi. In the small town of Malgudi, RK Narayan managed to paint the picturesque of a typical Indian village life. The streets, the railway station, shops and shopkeepers, ideas and dialogues do a brilliant job in capturing the backdrop of Indian villages through a humble yet remarkable prose.

It shall be very ungenerous on my part to spoil such an interesting plot for the reader, and I am willing to avoid the same. What I can tell you however, is that you shall not regret engaging into this marvel. In contradiction to what the title might suggest (I know it makes you think of a tiger or a lion)… it is the story of Vasu, a thick-skinned taxidermist (pun intended) who comes to live in the town, and his encounters with Narataj, an unassuming printing press owner. Vasu is a notorious hunter too, who kills animals and stores their bodies in a room Natraj owns. Much to Natraj’s and his neighbours’ horror, Vasu while he doesn’t pay rent, also invites prostitutes in the humble dwelling of Natraj, who is rather a god-fearing man.

Nataraj, however, remains a mute spectator in fear of Vasu’s muscle power. In fact, Nataraj comes across as a timid character avoiding aggression and disagreement at all costs. Given his character Nataraj bears everything that Vasu does but not when he comes to know that Vasu is going to kill a temple elephant that Nataraj has befriended. Whether Vasu succeeds in his venture or Nataraj does forms the rest of the story.

Narayan is blessed when it comes to bringing characters to life, within few pages.

Both the protagonist and the antagonist in the book have well developed, peculiar personalities, and the reader is offered an insight into their mind and functioning throughout the book. So much so that I found myself sharing Natraj’s fear and frustration towards Vasu. I was so intensely invested into Natraj’s story- and fearful for him being foolish, that I wanted to stop reading to avoid finding Natraj in some trouble- yes. It is also startling how Narayan makes you loathe the antagonist for his ways.

While I admit that experience might come out as drag for some of the readers because of Narayan’s feeble and Vasu’s unnerving ways…one must understand their frustration is a testimony of brilliance by which characters have been unfolded in the hustle-bustle of rural India post-independence.

The book is a one-sit read and can be enjoyed by all ages. Narayan, as usual, has not ridden it with unnecessary details, and every line/paragraph adds to its preceding one. To add to the appraisal, ending comes with a lesson all of us could hold on to in present situation-

“Every demon appears in the world with a special boon of indestructibility. Yet the universe has survived all the rakshasas that were ever born. Every demon carries within him, unknown to himself, a tiny seed of self-destruction, and goes up in thin air at the most unexpected moment. Otherwise what is to happen to humanity?”

– RK Narayan