A visit to ‘Crossword’ coincided with the Centenary Birth celebrations of the legendary R K Narayan, with some of his great works drowning the display ........ on an occasion like this and adding to the fact that its been ages since his works have crossed my mind ........ resisting the temptation of invading the centenary editions of his prized collections ........ the "Malgudi days" and "Swami and Friends", wouldn’t have been inevitable .............
Well back home, lying on an easy chair,...... with the company of the trees screening the Sunday forenoon’s chilled rays above along with a mug of hot choc n the bound pages of the mentioned marvels, would certainly vouch for a wonderful weekend afternoon.
As I glance the title “Malgudi Days” a smile erupts followed by my palate lingering with the taste of nostalgia ....... the long wait for the day and the hour of the week, when this piece of art was made to flow on the canvas by director Shankar Nag, added to it the genius of R K Laxman’s mesmerizing cartoons and the gratifying music by donnowho, which goes like .......... TA NA NA ….TANA……….. Ahh....
“Malgudi Days”, the simple, 'meaningless', gratifying epic ................. bringing back to life the Albert Mission School, The Sweet Shop vendor, Malgudi Railway station, the Statue of Sir Frederick Leawley, the Road Roller, The M.C.C. (Malgudi Cricket Club), the amazing Swami with his doti -topi and his always look of distress, along with his friends, the fragrance of a pre-independence rural Indian setup………n the touchy climax of swami n his friend departing.
As the pages flow from one tale to another…. The mastery descriptions of the author, (more imposing than a 70mm), adds a lot of flavors of emotions n expressions to the soul of each plot, that its visual format wouldn’t be able to justify…………… now how can the “emotions” in a line like “A donkey was standing near the gutter, patiently watching its own sharp shadow” …......... be expressed in a visual format…..
The magnanimity of nostalgic contempt which each of these simple, short, innocent, insignificant arrays of events brought to life are made worthy enough to take notice off the occurrence of almost exact incidents, at some point of its readers lives- defying the times, generations, cultures, geographies… each one of us belongs to….
As the afternoon ends with the tale, the last few pages had to say, the evening passed on with a sense of serenity as the pieces of nostalgia still ooze their taste. The errand list is added with a request to dish out a Malgudi Days dvd (if available) before the next Crossworld visit, to lighten the bookshelves of RKN’s other masterpieces.
