1. RASIPURAM KRISHNASWAMY NARAYANASWAMI
NOVELIST AND SHORT STORY WRITER

2. BIOGRAPHY He was born in 1906 in Madras.
He graduated from Maharaja College, Mysore in 1930.
His ambition has always been to become a writer.
He was married in 1935
He has written ten novels
- Swami and Friends 1935
- The Bachelor of Arts 1937
- The Dark Room 1938
- The English Teacher 1945
- Mr. Sampat 1949
- The Financial Expert 1952
- Waiting for the Mahatma 1955
- The Guide 1958
- The Man-Eater of Malgudi 1962
- The Sweet Vendor 1967

3. Honours and Awards Padma Bhushan 1964
Honorary D. Litt from University of Leads 1967
Honorary D. Litt from Delhi University 1973

4. Swami and Friends
Extracts from R K Narayan’s first Novel Swami and friends. This work is remarkable for Narayan’s Understanding of Child Psychology and for his depiction of the carefree world of school boys.
The plot Revolves around the activities of Swaminathan who is a student, first in the Albert Mission and later in the Board High School and his friends Mani, Shanker, Somu, Samuel and Rajam, a late arrival, intelligent and charming, the son of the police superintendent. To Swami, Rajam appears a demi-god.
The school boys are cricket conscious and talk of Bradman, Hobbs and Duleep.
Swaminathan and Rajam decide to form their own cricket team M.C.C. They decide to buy two bats. Here Narayan presents the debate between Swami and friends about the relative Superiority of bats. A funny debate follows in which Swami Compares Rolls-Royce with ordinary cars.
The crisis in Swami and Rajam’s relations is reached when Swami lets down his team by not turning up for the crucial match between the M.C.C. and the Young Men’s Union.
The match is played out and lost.
The result is that Rajam is very angry with Swami and the friendship between the two comes to an end with Anderson’s Fairy Tales.

5. Cont.
R.K.Narayan stresses the difference between the inconsiderate Rajam and his devoted friend Swamy.
Rajam’s ways and thinking are different, much like the ‘colonizers’.
He does not feel he owes anybody explanations or farewells.
He comes, he conquers and he will go as he pleases.