10 October 2006

Tracing the foot steps of the master in Malgudi.....

Recently, I visited Malgudi. I stayed there for a few days. "My days" in Malgudi started with cricket. "Swami and Friends" played with me. After the cricket, I was walking down the "Lawley Road" towards the "Boardless hotel" when I met "Mr. Sampath". He was doing fine. Now a days the "Boardless Hotel" has "The Dark Room" which had captivated "A Tiger" sometimes back. This tiger was "The Man-Eater of Malgudi", whom the "Talkative Man" killed on "An Astrologer's Day". I met "The Guide" in the hotel who then took me to "The astrologer" who was sitting "Under the Banyan Tree", who told me that he was going to shift to some other profession from "Next Sunday". I also saw "A Horse and Two Goats" besides him. I had a small nap on the bank of "Sarayu" river, which was all "The World of Nagaraj". Here I dreamt of roaming on "The Emerald Route". I spoke to "Raju, The Guide" about it, who then remembered his "Grandmother's Tales" which also had similar stories! Then I met "The Vendor of Sweets" who was renovating his shop, had "Painter of Signs" working for him that day. He was very particular about the Indian tri-colour be painted on the board. I visited "the temple" and came out, I found my chappal worn on one side. I got it repaired from "The Cobbler" who sat next to the temple, under the shade of the tree. When I was getting my foot-wear done, I saw "the beggar" approaching me, and I gave him a coin. As I was roaming on the street, there I saw "Leela" waving her little hand at me. I played with her for some time and then looked at the next compound where the "Margosa tree" had been grown to be three times bigger than my last visit! Then I saw "Eshwar", who sat in the far-off corner of the "Ellaman Street" and dreamt of passing "The Bachelor of Arts" exams. Finally there came "The English Teacher" walking on with "The Doctor Raman", "Gopal" was on the other side of the doctor. They were all heading to the garden off the "Kabir Street". I wished all of them happy time. There came "Talkative Man" again. He said there was a warning about "Cyclone" in "Dodu". I travelled in the taxi to the other end of Malgudi to "Palace Talkies" to watch a Tamil movie. I saw "Mr Lawley"'s statue being re-instated by the corporation, and also observed the "Road Roller" being removed from the ground. On my way back to "Elma Road", I saw "Margayya" busy sharing his "Financial Expert"ise in front of "the bank". "Railway station" was not crowded this time, so I could talk to the "Railway Master" without any hicups. But the "Market road" was much crowded than ever. I was walking back to "Lawley Road" when I met "The Post Man", and had a casual chat with him. I also saw "The Watchman". He was again into creating the clay articles with his bare hands. There was that little "Naga" playing with the snake. This time I walked past the "Nallappa's Grove" to the "Untouchables" colony where people were "Waiting for the Mahatma" to come and reside there. After meeting all these people, I was reluctant to come back. This is "The world of Malgudi" for me. But I had no choice this time. I again had a cup of coffee at "The Boardless" and boarded my train at "The railway station" reading my "Dateless Diary".

Some writeups from the fans of RKN :
1. My tribute to RK Narayan
2. Great tribute from the biggest of the fans of RKN
3. 100 simple years
4. RKN Smriti
5. RKN on Rediff
6. Hindu's tribute

And here the legendary Indian writers group up for RKN
1. V S Naipaul
2. Shashi Tharoor
3. Jhumpa Lahiri

Many more links are there, please provide the same if you have any.

7 comments:

Srik said...

It was my small effort in re-visiting the most read Indian author in English on his centenary Birth-day.

Anonymous said...

very creative post. and thanks for giving a link to my post where i have paid my tributes to my fav. author. (I am sure there are bigger and better fans than me of RKN.)
thanks once again.
cheers

Srik said...

As far as I see, You are the biggest fan, Bellur. So, I named it so.

At the same time, even though there was a conference going on in Mysore as part of the centenary celebrations of RKN, I was sad that none of our news papers nor the TV channels covered it nor they attached any importance to the day!! It was so shocking for me. Im un-aware of any programme on TV/news papers about the occasion. Please guide me if there are any.

Anonymous said...

'the hindu' is covering the event and so is the local paper STAR OF MYSORE. but narayan never liked anything extravagant. so not to worry, the quality of the celebration is important, not the quantity. glad, the tv channels and journalists are not making unnecessary noise at the conference.
in fact, if narayan would have been alive (of course, he is alive thu his books) physically, he would have never felt comfortable attending his birth centenary celebrations. and this is what N Ram has written in one of his tributes to the writer.

Balaji said...

Interesting post..Continue your good work..and thanks a lot for giving a link to my post [;)]

Balaji

Anonymous said...

Thanks Srik, That was tooooooo good. Now I know how many books I am missing! I shall try to collect as many as I can & then pass on the hobby to the next-gen!

Praveen Krishnan said...

Have read many links of RKN many times!!!He is truly the greatest Indian author of all times.