What did you like about Swami in Malgudi Days?
Answers
Answer:
The Hungry Child
The story is vivid in my mind even though it's been many years since I read it. It stands out for the beautiful presentation and the dreamy premise.
The entire story takes place at the Expo organized in an old football ground. We are introduced to Raman and his past life, about his love affair with Daisy who left him a day before their wedding and since then Raman seemed to have lost all hope in all things. Now roaming at the Expo he hears the announcement regarding a missing child whose parents have being called out for the fourth time and Raman goes absent mindedly towards the office and in heat of the moment declares himself to be the father of the child and takes him.The rest of the story deals with how Raman dreams of rebuilding his life around the child. He is a sign board painter who had done well in his line of work until he lost interest in it after his fiasco with Daisy. We are given an insight into how Raman looks forward to fulfilling all of the child’s wishes and continue to dream about his life with kid when all of the sudden the child sees his parents and rushes towards them who slap him, before Raman can even protest. The child is going to be slapped again and this becomes a metaphorical slap which wakes up Raman from the dream he was creating. He heads back home.
Narayan has a love for describing carnivals, fairs, and the expo. Story after story we find in his Malgudi Days being set in such an environment if not then we at least have a market scene. Narayan’s eye for keeping all the events happening around and making Malgudi a microcosm of India can be seen in the stories. In The Hungry Child, the Expo itself is a happening place of many events. W even have a No More Children sign coming up in the story mirroring India’s effort to control birth rate.
The beauty of Narayan's stories is his simplicity and the way he passes a meaningful message in these simple stories and The Hungry Child is an epitome of that style.