Malgudi

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Malgudi
First appearanceSwami and Friends (1935)
Created byR. K. Narayan
In-universe information
TypeTown
LocationKarnataka
CountryIndia

Malgudi (

Bengaluru localities - Malleshwara and Basavanagudi
.

Narayan has successfully portrayed Malgudi as a microcosm of

Shimoga-Talaguppa railway
line to Malgudi Railway station.Swami and friends also seems to have taken place during the swadeshi and boycott movement against British

Geography and origins

Malgudi is located on the banks of the fictional river Sarayu, near the also-fictional Mempi forest, on the border of the states of Mysore and Madras and a few hours away from

Madras.[2][3]

Narayan's assertion that Malgudi is work of fiction has not deterred readers from speculating about its actual location being

Kaveri and Yadavgiri[citation needed] in the erstwhile state of Mysore
.

Malgudi was a

Malleshwaram and Basavanagudi, the story is apocryphal. He created the town in September 1930, on Vijayadashami, an auspicious day to start new efforts and thus chosen for him by his grandmother.[4] As he mentioned in a later interview to his biographers Susan and N. Ram, in his mind, he first saw a railway station, and slowly the name Malgudi came to him.[5]

Localities and landmarks

Sarayu River

Malgudi is located on the banks of the river

Sarayu. In Swami and Friends, Swami, Mani and Rajam spend most of their evenings playing or chatting by the river. In The Guide, holy-man Raju fasts on the banks of the dry river Sarayu, praying for the rains to come. When Mahatma Gandhi
visits Malgudi, the meetings and speeches are held right on the banks of river Sarayu.

Streets and neighbourhoods

Market Street is the central street of Malgudi, the location of several big shops including Bombay Anand Bhavan and Truth Printing Works. Kabir Street is the residence of the elite of Malgudi, while Lawley Extension is a new upcoming lane housing the rich and the influential. Elleman Street, home to the oil-mongers, is the last street and beyond it lies the river Sarayu. Other streets include Grove Street, Kalighat Lane and Vinayak Muduli Street.

Between Elleman Street and the river lie Mallappa's Grove and the cremation ground. The Untouchables and sweepers live on the lower banks of the river.

Buildings

Palace Talkies was built in 1935 to replace the old Variety Hall. Albert Mission School and Albert Mission College are the more popular educational institutions. There are also the board school and the town elementary schools.

Other landmarks

Malgudi has a small

railway station
which in many episodes, is central to the storyline. The main hospital of Malgudi is Malgudi Medical Centre (MMC). The statue of Sir Fredrick, seated on a horse, forms another major landmark. Another important place is The Board less, a small restaurant without any board. Boardless is a centre of discussion for current events in Malgudi.

Mempi Forest

Mempi forest is on the other side of Sarayu. It houses many hills and caves. Animals to be found there include

langurs and water buffalos
.

Conceptualization

Various critics compare Narayan's Malgudi with

Yoknapatawpha. It was a town created from his own experiences, his childhood, his upbringing. The people in it were people he met every day. He thus created a place which every Indian could relate to. A place, where, in the words of Graham Greene
(from the introduction to The Financial Expert), you could go "into those loved and shabby streets and see with excitement and a certainty of pleasure a stranger approaching past the bank, the cinema, the hair cutting saloon, a stranger who will greet us, we know, with some unexpected and revealing phrase that will open the door to yet another human existence."

In contemporary culture

Tumakuru
District, Karnataka.

The concept of Malgudi as an "idyllic spot located in

Hyderabad.[6][7] A restaurant named "Malgudi Junction" is located in Kolkata.[8]

See also

References

  1. ISBN 0882530623
    .
  2. ISBN 9788176257138
    .
  3. ISBN 9780141002453
    .
  4. ISBN 81-86790-31-4
    .
  5. OCLC 55606024
    .
  6. ^ "Andhra Food Fest at Malgudi". Archived from the original on 12 October 2007. Retrieved 22 October 2006.
  7. ^ "The Hindu : Metro Plus Bangalore / Shopping : Winners from Chettinad". Archived from the original on 17 May 2011. Retrieved 22 October 2006.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  8. ^ "The Telegraph - Calcutta : Metro". www.telegraphindia.com. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007.
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