Article about R.K. Narayan interactions with Natwar Singh; Narayan's book, The Guide, and movie, Guide
Letters from Malgudi — when R.K. Narayan sought help with a fridge, http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/sunday-special-letters-from-malgudi-when-rk-narayan-sought-help-with-a-fridge/article9256579.ece, Oct. 23rd 2016.
I found the above article to be quite interesting. I have enjoyed R.K. Narayan's books but have not yet read his 'The Guide' book mentioned here.
Here's a pdf (scanned image not text) download link for his book, 'The Guide' (zip file; needs to be unzipped after download): https://archive.org/compress/guidenovel00nara/formats=TEXT%20PDF,JPEG-COMPRESSED%20PDF&file=/guidenovel00nara.zip
Other download formats and a facility to read the book can be seen here: https://archive.org/details/guidenovel00nara
An extract from the wikipedia page of the book, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guide:
The Guide is a 1958 novel written in English by the Indian author R. K. Narayan. Like most of his works the novel is based on Malgudi, the fictional town in South India. The novel describes the transformation of the protagonist, Raju, from a tour guide to a spiritual guide and then one of the greatest holy men of India. [Ravi: I believe Raju becomes a conman-godman and not a genuine godman. So readers should not confuse the above sentence to mean that he gets transformed into a genuine holy man.]
The novel brought its author the 1960 Sahitya Akademi Award for English, by the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters.
--- end extract ---
As The Hindu article mentions this book was the basis for Dev Anand's Hindi movie, Guide (1965). Here's the youtube video link for it, Guide 1965 | Full Movie | Dev Anand, Waheeda Rehman, Leela Chitnis, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ryh_WBc6eP0, around 2 hr 40 mins.
Here's a popular song from the movie sung by Lata Mangeshkar, Aaj Phir Jeene Ki Tamanna Hai | Dev Anand, Waheeda Rehman | Guide 1965 Songs, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_RR_lfECMg, 3 min 38 secs.
For those who do not know about R.K. Narayan here is the introduction section from his wiki page, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._K._Narayan:
R. K. Narayan (10 October 1906 – 13 May 2001), full name Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami, was an Indian writer, best known for his works set in the fictional South Indian town of Malgudi. He was a leading author of early Indian literature in English, along with Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao.
Narayan's mentor and friend, Graham Greene was instrumental in getting publishers for Narayan’s first four books, including the semi-autobiographical trilogy of Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts and The English Teacher. The fictional town of Malgudi, was first introduced in Swami and Friends. Narayan’s The Financial Expert, was hailed as one of the most original works of 1951, and Sahitya Akademi Award winner The Guide, was adapted for film and for Broadway.
Narayan highlights the social context and everyday life of his characters, and he has been compared to William Faulkner, who also created a similar fictional town, and likewise explored with humour and compassion the energy of ordinary life. Narayan's short stories have been compared with those of Guy de Maupassant, because of his ability to compress a narrative. However, he has also been criticised for the simplicity of his prose.
In a career that spanned over sixty years, Narayan received many awards and honours, including the AC Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature, the Padma Bhushan and the Padma Vibhushan, India's third and second highest civilian awards. He was also nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India's parliament.
[I thank wikipedia and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above extract from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
I found the above article to be quite interesting. I have enjoyed R.K. Narayan's books but have not yet read his 'The Guide' book mentioned here.
Here's a pdf (scanned image not text) download link for his book, 'The Guide' (zip file; needs to be unzipped after download): https://archive.org/compress/guidenovel00nara/formats=TEXT%20PDF,JPEG-COMPRESSED%20PDF&file=/guidenovel00nara.zip
Other download formats and a facility to read the book can be seen here: https://archive.org/details/guidenovel00nara
An extract from the wikipedia page of the book, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guide:
The Guide is a 1958 novel written in English by the Indian author R. K. Narayan. Like most of his works the novel is based on Malgudi, the fictional town in South India. The novel describes the transformation of the protagonist, Raju, from a tour guide to a spiritual guide and then one of the greatest holy men of India. [Ravi: I believe Raju becomes a conman-godman and not a genuine godman. So readers should not confuse the above sentence to mean that he gets transformed into a genuine holy man.]
The novel brought its author the 1960 Sahitya Akademi Award for English, by the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters.
--- end extract ---
As The Hindu article mentions this book was the basis for Dev Anand's Hindi movie, Guide (1965). Here's the youtube video link for it, Guide 1965 | Full Movie | Dev Anand, Waheeda Rehman, Leela Chitnis, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ryh_WBc6eP0, around 2 hr 40 mins.
Here's a popular song from the movie sung by Lata Mangeshkar, Aaj Phir Jeene Ki Tamanna Hai | Dev Anand, Waheeda Rehman | Guide 1965 Songs, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_RR_lfECMg, 3 min 38 secs.
For those who do not know about R.K. Narayan here is the introduction section from his wiki page, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._K._Narayan:
R. K. Narayan (10 October 1906 – 13 May 2001), full name Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami, was an Indian writer, best known for his works set in the fictional South Indian town of Malgudi. He was a leading author of early Indian literature in English, along with Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao.
Narayan's mentor and friend, Graham Greene was instrumental in getting publishers for Narayan’s first four books, including the semi-autobiographical trilogy of Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts and The English Teacher. The fictional town of Malgudi, was first introduced in Swami and Friends. Narayan’s The Financial Expert, was hailed as one of the most original works of 1951, and Sahitya Akademi Award winner The Guide, was adapted for film and for Broadway.
Narayan highlights the social context and everyday life of his characters, and he has been compared to William Faulkner, who also created a similar fictional town, and likewise explored with humour and compassion the energy of ordinary life. Narayan's short stories have been compared with those of Guy de Maupassant, because of his ability to compress a narrative. However, he has also been criticised for the simplicity of his prose.
In a career that spanned over sixty years, Narayan received many awards and honours, including the AC Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature, the Padma Bhushan and the Padma Vibhushan, India's third and second highest civilian awards. He was also nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India's parliament.
[I thank wikipedia and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above extract from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
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