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A photo of RK Nayaran by R. K. Balaraman –

Top 10 Facts about Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami

Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami was born on 10 October 1906 and died on 13 May 2001. He was an Indian writer known for his work set in the fictional South Indian town of Malgudi. He was a leading author of early Indian literature in English along with Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao.

Narayan’s mentor and friend Graham Greene was instrumental in getting publishers for Narayan’s first four books including the semi-autobiographical trilogy of Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts and The English Teacher. In the article are the top ten facts about Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami.

1. Rasipuram’s mentor was Graham Greene

Graham Greene photo by Magyar Hírek folyóirat –

Henry Graham Greene was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquired a reputation early in his lifetime as a major writer, both of serious Catholic novels and thrillers.

Graham Greene was instrumental in getting publishers for Narayan’s first four books including the semi-autobiographical trilogy of Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts and The English Teacher.

2. Rasipuram has been compared to William Faulkner

A portrait of William Faulkner by Carl Van Vechten –

William Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based in Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most of his life.

Narayan highlights the social context and everyday life of his characters which makes him compared to William Faulkner. William Faulkner created a similar fictional town and likewise explored with humour and compassion the energy of ordinary life.

3. Rasipuram’s short stories have been compared with those of Guy de Maupassant

A photo of Guy de Maupassant by Nadar –

Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant was a 19th-century French author, remembered as a master of the short story form, as well as a representative of the Naturalist school, who depicted human lives, destinies and social forces in disillusioned and often pessimistic terms.

Rasipuram’s short stories are compared with those of Guy de Maupassant because of his ability to compress a narrative.

4. He was born into a family of eight children

A family of eight children indicates that the 1960s United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the 1972 World Health Organisation on Reproductive Health, the 1978 Alam-Ata Conference, the 1987 Safe Motherhood Initiative in Geneva Switzerland, and the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, were not effective to any instance.

Of course, these programmes were not implemented the earliest having been chaired by UNFPA in the 1960s. So, one of the main three legs of Reproductive Health which is Family Planning was unknown to almost all parts of the world India included.

So, R. K. Narayan was born into a Tamil Brahmin family. He was one of eight children; six sons and two daughters. Narayan was second among the sons; his younger brother Ramachandran later became an editor at Gemini Studios, and the youngest brother Laxman became a cartoonist. This was indeed a huge population by one mother only.

5. Narayan spent a part of his childhood under the care of his maternal grandmother

His maternal grandmother was called Parvati. His grandmother gave him the nickname Kunjappa, A name that stuck with him in family circles. She taught him arithmetic, mythology, classical Indian music and Sanskrit.

According to Laxman, the family mostly conversed in English, and grammatical errors on the part of Narayan and his siblings were frowned upon. While living with his grandmother, Narayan studied at a succession of schools in Madras, including the Lutheran Mission School in Purasawalkam, C.R.C. High School, and Christian College High School.

6. His wife was fifteen when Nayaran married her

A photo of RK Nayaran and his wife Rajam by R. K. Balaraman –

While vacationing at his sister’s house in Coimbatore, in 1933, Narayan met and fell in love with Rajam, a 15-year-old girl who lived nearby. Despite many astrological and financial obstacles, Narayan managed to gain permission from the girl’s father and married her.

Following his marriage, Narayan became a reporter for a Madras-based paper called The Justice, dedicated to the rights of non-Brahmins. The publishers were thrilled to have a Brahmin Iyer in Narayan espousing their cause.

7. Did Nayaran marry after his wife’s death

Rajam died of typhoid in 1939. Her death affected Narayan deeply and he remained depressed for a long time. He never remarried in his life; he was also concerned for their daughter Hema, who was only three years old.

8. Narayan was commissioned by the government to become a brand ambassador for tourism

Narayan was commissioned by the government of Karnataka to write a book to promote tourism in the state. The work was published as part of a larger government publication in the late 1970s.

He thought it deserved better, and republished it as The Emerald Route in 1980. The book contains his perspective on the local history and heritage, but being bereft of his characters and creations, it misses his enjoyable narrative.

9. Narayan’s writing technique was unpretentious with a natural element of humour

The technique focused on ordinary people, reminding the reader of next-door neighbours, cousins and the like, thereby providing a greater ability to relate to the topic.

Unlike his national contemporaries, he was able to write about the intricacies of Indian society without having to modify his characteristic simplicity to conform to trends and fashions in fiction writing.

He also employed the use of nuanced dialogic prose with gentle Tamil overtones based on the nature of his characters. Critics have considered Narayan to be the Indian Chekhov, due to the similarities in their writings, the simplicity and the gentle beauty and humour in tragic situations.

10. Narayan made India accessible to the outside world through his literature

This was his greatest achievement throughout his career. He is regarded as one of the three leading English-language Indian fiction writers, along with Raja Rao and Mulk Raj Anand.

He gave his readers something to look forward to with Malgudi and its residents and is considered to be one of the best novelists India has ever produced.

He brought small-town India to his audience in a manner that was both believable and experiential. Malgudi was not just a fictional town in India, but one teeming with characters, each with their idiosyncrasies and attitudes, making the situation as familiar to the reader as if it were their backyard.