Characteristics of the narrator of the prose Lawley Road
Answers
“Lawley Road” by R.K.Narayan is set in the fictional town of Malgudi. For years, people were not aware of the existence of a Municipal Council in Malgudi, because the Municipal Council did not do any work in the town. People suffered from diseases, the dust and rubbish were left as it is, and the drains were left to fend for themselves.
Suddenly, on the day of India’s independence, the Municipal Council was inspired to do something special. They cleaned up the town and hoisted flags all over. But the Chairman of the Municipal Council was not satisfied.
He wanted to do something grand to mark the occasion. So he and his council decided to nationalize the names of all the streets and parks. Along with these, the council also decided to remove the statue of Sir Frederick Lawley that stood on Lawley Road as they had changed the name of Lawley Road to Gandhi Nagar. They further discovered that Sir Frederick Lawley had been a cruel despot who had ill-treated Indians.
The statue of Sir Frederick Lawley was more than 20 feet tall and made of lead. It was not an easy task to remove it. But the Chairman and the council were determined to remove it. Since the contractors were demanding a lot of money to remove the statue, the Municipal Council offered the statue to the narrator if he agreed to remove it for free. The narrator took up the job considering it a good investment. He hired strong men from Koppal and set to work removing the statue. After many days, he had to finally use dynamite to blast the statue and remove it. He then carted it off to his house in Kabir Lane in order to sell the metal and make a profit.
Unfortunately, a week later, the Chairman received information from various historical societies that Sir Frederick Lawley had in fact been a very good man who had helped Indians, especially the people of Malgudi, in many ways. The government wanted him to reinstate the statue. But the narrator having spent a lot of money on removing the statue, refused to part with it. A lot of legal wrangling took place between him and the Municipal Council, but the statue remained in the narrator’s house for six months.
Then the Government conducted an enquiry into the issue and decided to dissolve the council and have re-elections. The narrator came up with an idea on how the Chairman could avoid having to fight another election. He suggested that the Chairman do something grand like acquiring the narrator’s house in Kabir Lane as a National Trust. He was willing to part with his house for a reasonable price. Since the statue of Sir Frederick Lawley was already in the house, it would be easier to just install it there, instead of taking it back to its original place. The Chairman liked the idea, and a few days later, the Municipal Council decided to rename Kabir Lane as Lawley Road.
The story thus is a satire on the completely illogical way in which our political leaders go about their business, especially the random naming and renaming of places.
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