PUFFIN CLASSICS

Malgudi Schooldays

The Adventures of Swami and His Friends

R . K . N A R AYA N

Introduction by Shashi Deshpande Illustrations by R.K. Laxman

PUFFIN BOOKS USA Canada UK Ireland Australia New Zealand India South Africa China Puffin Books is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com Published by Penguin Random House India Pvt. Ltd 4th Floor, Capital Tower 1, MG Road, Gurugram 122 002, Haryana, India

First published in Puffin by Penguin Books India 2002 This Puffin Classics edition published by Penguin Books India 2010 Copyright © The legal heirs of R.K. Narayan 2002, 2010 Illustrations copyright © R.K. Laxman 2002, 2010 Swamy and Friends was first published by Hamish Hamilton 1935 ‘A Helping Hand’ was first published as ‘Father’s Help’ in Malgudi Days by William Heinemann Ltd. 1982 ‘A Hero’ was first published in Under the Banyan Tree by William Heinemann Ltd. 1985 Penguin Books India gratefully acknowledges Diptakirti Chaudhuri for creating the ‘Classic Plus’ section. All Rights Reserved 55 54 53 52 51 50 ISBN 9780143330981 Typeset in Minion by Mantra Virtual Services, New Delhi This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. www.penguin.co.in

Contents

Publisher’s Note Introduction by Shashi Deshpande Monday Morning Rajam and Mani Swami’s Grandmother What is a Tail? Father’s Room A Friend in Need A New Arrival Before the Examinations School Breaks Up The Coachman’s Son In Father’s Presence At the Club A Helping Hand Broken Panes The ‘MCC’ Granny Shows Her Ignorance A Hero The Captain Takes a Stand

vii ix 1 14 23 33 42 50 57 60 72 79 93 104 110 120 137 154 163 170

Before the Match In Trouble Again Swami Disappears Out on His Own The Day of the Match The Return Parting Present

180 188 200 205 213 221 230

Classic Plus

239

Publisher’s Note

Malgudi Schooldays includes everything R.K. Narayan published about the adventures of Swami and his friends in Malgudi. Narayan’s classic novel Swami and Friends has been slightly abridged for the purposes of the present volume, and in keeping with its episodic nature, the narrative has been divided into more chapters than in the original. In addition, two of Narayan’s Malgudi stories featuring Swami, ‘Father’s Help’ and ‘A Hero’, have been inserted in their appropriate places in the text with the approval of the author’s estate.

Introduction

There is always a great pleasure in reading about the unknown and the unfamiliar. A book about distant places, strange lands and different people takes you into a new world, a world that is exciting because it is strange to you. Most of the English books we read in our childhood were of this kind. There was Treasure Island, which took us to a world of ships, pirates, treasure and adventure, or Alice in Wonderland, which was pure fantasy and therefore magical. But there is also a kind of pleasure in seeing in a book something you know, something which is a part of your life and you are familiar with. You get excited, thinking, ‘I know that!’ or ‘Yes, I’ve felt exactly like that’ or ‘That happened to me too’. I remember that when we read books like What Katy Did or Little Women, we rarely remembered that the children we were reading about were living in America, for the children in these books were, despite their surroundings of snowing winters and fireplaces, just like us. R.K. Narayan’s Malgudi Schooldays combines both these pleasures. It is the story of a schoolboy Swami (his full name is Swaminathan–quite a mouthful!) living in a small town, Malgudi, which is somewhere in south India. But because it is set in a much earlier period, a time when the British still ix

ruled India and Gandhiji was fighting for India’s independence, it seems almost like a strange country. Things were very different from what they are now. Schoolboys wore coats and caps to school, sometimes even a dhoti–yes, a dhoti. Look at one of the pictures in the book. (By the way, the illustrations in this book have been drawn by R.K.Laxman, the author’s brother and a famous artist in his own right.) It was a time when children walked to school, carried ink bottles with them, and money was rupees, annas and pice (even pies!). And Swami’s ‘one consuming passion’ is to possess a hoop (it’s an old cycle wheel) to play with! Yet once you begin reading, you will find that Swami and his friends are not so different after all, from the schoolboys of today. Like so many children, Swami has problems with his studies, specially maths, he is scared of his stern, disciplining father and is petted by his mother and grandmother. In school Swami has friends, best friends, and enemies as well, like some teachers and the Headmaster. Sadly, there are times when even his friends suddenly become his enemies. Which happens when the new boy Rajam, the police officer’s son, who wears ‘socks and shoes, a fur cap and tie and a wonderful coat’, joins school and Swami becomes his ardent admirer; ‘Rajam’s Tail’, the other boys mock him. All children will sympathize with Swami’s troubles in school, at his attempts to get out of school early so that he can practice cricket, and all will laugh at the excuse he offers, of being ‘delirious’, a word he does not even know the meaning x

of. Yes, there is much fun in this book, like Swami’s terror of ghosts and the letter the MCC (the Malgudi Cricket Club, founded by Swami and his friends) writes, ordering cricket bats for their team. However, our Swami is also a hero; he takes a small part in a demonstration for India’s freedom, even burns his cap on the bonfire of ‘foreign’ clothes and is expelled from school for his ‘political’ activities. R.K. Narayan, the author of this book, was one of the early Indian writers writing in English. He lived almost all his life in Mysore, which, in his writing became Malgudi, a little town through which a river flows. By the end of his life, he had readers throughout the world. One wonders whether Narayan recreated his childhood in his stories of Swami and his friends. He certainly knew that the world of children is not always happy and carefree. Swami has his share of problems and troubles, both at home and in school. However, Swami is given a chance to redeem himself and cover himself with glory in the cricket match the MCC and a rival club are to play. Does he take the chance? Will Swami prove himself a Tate (the greatest fast bowler of that time) and help the MCC win the match? Will his school take him back? No, I will not give away the ending. You have to read the book to know the answers. Enough to say that all will be well and Swami will survive to fight and to enjoy another day. June 2009

Shashi Deshpande xi

Monday Morning

I

t was Monday morning. Swaminathan was reluctant to open his eyes. He considered Monday specially unpleasant in the calendar. After the delicious freedom of Saturday and Sunday, it was difficult to get into the Monday mood of work and discipline. He shuddered at the very thought of school: that dismal yellow building; the fire-eyed Vedanayagam, his class-teacher; and the Headmaster with his thin long cane . . . By eight he was at his desk in his ‘room’, which was only a corner in his father’s dressing-room. He had a table on which all his things, his coat, cap, slate, ink-bottle, and books, were thrown in a confused heap. He sat on his stool and shut his eyes to recollect what work he had for the day: first of course there was Arithmetic—those five puzzles in Profit and Loss; 1

then there was English—he had to copy down a page from his Eighth Lesson, and write dictionary meanings of difficult words; and then there was Geography. And only two hours before him to do all this heap of work and get ready for the school! * Fire-eyed Vedanayagam was presiding over the class with his back to the long window. Through its bars one saw a bit of the drill ground and a corner of the veranda of the Infant Standards. There were huge windows on the left showing vast open grounds bound at the other extreme by the railway embankment. To Swaminathan existence in the classroom was possible only because he could watch the toddlers of the Infant Standards falling over one another, and through the windows on the left see the 12.30 Mail gliding over the embankment, booming and rattling while passing over the Sarayu Bridge. The first hour passed off quietly. The second they had Arithmetic. Vedanayagam went out and returned in a few minutes in the role of an Arithmetic teacher. He droned on monotonously. Swaminathan was terribly bored. His teacher’s voice was beginning to get on his nerves. He felt sleepy. The teacher called for home exercises. Swaminathan left his seat, jumped on the platform, and placed his note-book on the table. While the teacher was scrutinizing the sums, 2

Swaminathan was gazing on his face, which seemed so tame at close quarters. His criticism of the teacher’s face was that his eyes were too near each other, that there was more hair on his chin than one saw from the bench, and that he was very very bad-looking. His reverie was disturbed. He felt a terrible pain in the soft flesh above his left elbow. The teacher was pinching him with one hand, and with the other, crossing out all the sums. He wrote ‘Very Bad’ at the bottom of the page, flung the note-book in Swaminathan’s face, and drove him back to his seat. Next period they had History. The boys looked forward to it eagerly. It was taken by D. Pillai, who had earned a name in the school for kindness and good humour. He was reputed to have never frowned or sworn at the boys at any time. His method of teaching History conformed to no canon of education. He told the boys with a wealth of detail the private histories of Vasco da Gama, Clive, Hastings, and others. When he described the various fights in History, one heard the clash of arms and the groans of the slain. He was the despair of the Headmaster whenever the latter stole along the corridor with noiseless steps on his rounds of inspection. The Scripture period was the last in the morning. It was not such a dull hour after all. There were moments in it that brought stirring pictures before one: the Red Sea cleaving and making way for the Israelites; the physical feats of Samson; Jesus rising from the grave; and so on. The only 3

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