R.K.Narayan - My Days - Review

For a long time, I was longing to read the My Days by R.K.Narayan - his auto-biography. Whoever writes about R.K.Narayan or about his stories always have a reference to his My Days, which increased my eagerness to read it. Last month when we went to landmark, I was able to locate all other works of R.K.N, except his My Days. But somehow recently I managed to acquire a copy of it and started reading it.

Earlier whenever I read his novels or any of his work, I used to complete it in a day or in 2 or 3 days max. I remember reading his "The Talkative Man", while I was travelling from Chennai to Trichy in bus, seated under the only blue-coloured night lamp that was lit in the bus. I started reading when the bus started at 9:30 PM and finished it by 3:30 AM, after which I slept. But this time, I was reading My Days for over 3 weeks. This might be due to the fact that I have not read any novel or book over the last couple of years, or I may have lost my interest in reading, a bit.

In the initial chapters, he describes about his childhood in Purasalwalkam, Chennai. As I live close to Pursaiwalkam, and I know almost all the landmarks that he had mentioned, leaving nothing to my imagination, made it a bit less interesting to read - for me. He has not written the book in chronological order, but has mentioned the major events in his life in different chapters. His school days, then college days, love, marriage, career and it ends abruptly with RKN mentioning that an auto-biography cannot have a final chapter.

I liked his chapter on college days, where he mentioned about his long walks on the Chamundi hills in Mysore. I had been to Mysore for a special trip in my life and I could visuvalize the roads and greeneries in his walking route. But unlike the Puralwalkam, I enjoyed reading his life in this area. During my college days, I also had the habit of walking for very long distances in the evenings, mostly on Friday evenings, until one day I saw a very big snake crossing my route, in just one feet before me. We both got scared on seeing each other and rushed to clear out our ways from each other.

The chapters in which he describes about his search for a job after completing his college was intresting. He had a short stint as a schoolmaster(A govt job). He left that job when his boss asked him to go as substitute for the Physical Training class. He finally decided that he should become a writer, a profession that he liked. A Govt job is much sought after even in these days of liberlization, and he has dared to leave one, since he wanted to do something that he really liked to do. And his family member's support for this un-orthodoxical careers was a plus for him. As my friend used to say, one is very lucky if one is paid for persuing his hobby and makes a living out of it. I am one such privilaged to some extent.

His love was another interesting chapter (read about My Love here), somewhat un-conventional when we think about him, getting in love with a 15 year old girl and subsequently marring her, which should be a tough task in those days, and a un-matching horoscope adding more toughness to it. But unfortunately his wife left this world after 5 years of marriage, leaving behind a girl. Having read his "The English Teacher" - which was more or less his auto-biography of this part of his life - I expected this area to be a water-shed. But he just crosses it in a few paragraphs. He also describes how he over-came it and he belived that death was only a change of vehicle and the soul continued to live.

He also briefly describes his trip to US and his stay in Berkely, during which time he wrote the "The Guide".
He also explains the challenges he faced while running his own publishing company and about his experience in building his own house. In all it was a intresting read, sure to be an inspiration for aspiring writers. Hoping to read  his "My Dateless Diary" soon, which was a journel of his trip to the US.

- spgr.