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.

Vanavasam & Manavasam

Recently I happened to read the book Vanavasam and its sequel Manavasam, both written by Kannadasan. These two books happen to be a chronological listing of the main events in his life. Both the books made an intresting read, Like many I am also a fan to some of his songs. I do listen to some of the old songs mainly for its lyrics. When I hear some of the old songs I wonder that we know all these words individually, but wonderfully he has joined them to bring out such a nice rhyming songs. To say for example "Muttukal sirikkum nilathil thittikum ninaipai vidhaikkum..."

Definitely he is a gifted Genius. But in this autobiography-Vanavasam he cliams that he got that skill through practice. Its a surprise to know that he has studied only upto 8th and with that he gained to manage such a mastery over Tamil and its grammer and vocabulary. Vanavasam talks about his early life and his political life in DMK party. After reading this book only I came to know that Kannadasan had an active, but unstable and unsuccessful political career. Vanavasam ends once he quits the DMK party. Manavasam start after that and it doesnt end. That is, he didnt complete Manavasam. Among these two, it was Vanavasam that I found more interesting. I was surprised to know the background and early life of some of the political leaders who are top leaders now.

In many places one call can get the feel of reading a third grade cheap books. Especially in those areas where he narrates his visit to prostitution houses along with his friend, both were budding entrants to politics at that time. I have read such situations even in some of the stories of R.K.Narayan. This makes one to come to the conclusion that Men visiting such places has been a common, partially accepted activity in those times. Even in older tamil movies quite often we can come across the dialog "Aambalaigna kalyanathukku munnadi konjam appadi ippadi than iruppanga...".

In his preface the author declares that he has the said the truth throughout the book, but at the same time he admits that he has not revealed many of the incidents that happened in his life, since he feels that it cannot be revealed in public. He claims that the truth is like one being naked and one cannot be nake everywhere. I could understand his reasoning. Even in Gandhi's autobiography too, Gandhiji has mentioned that there are some incidents which only he and God knows and he wishes to keep them within him and God and not reveal to others.

We can understand this to some extent. Being human beings, guided (or rather tied) by social and cultural laws we all will have some part of our lives which only we and God know. Vanavasam starts with Kannadasan as a grown up boy with ambitions to reach the sky and rule the world. Then continues with his early days leaving his native, searching for jobs in Trichy, settling in odd jobs, primarily in the publishing industry which was in its infacy those days. Then moving to Chennai, then to Salem, coming back to Chennai. In all these places and cities he narrates the men he met, ladies he met, and lived with most of those ladies - varying from single night and sometimes upto six months - which is sure will make many jealous :-).

The author claims that the many leaders in political parties didnt practice what they preached - a fact that we can understand by seeing many leaders having more than one wife now. Manavasam describes his political life in Congress and also his abroad visits. Unlike other autobiographies, the script in these books have a different style, partly because it was written by a poet. Each of this book can be read once, and it helps to understand the ups and downs in the life of the gifted Genius - Kannadasan.

- Pavala.