The world of Nagaraj Book

3.75 stars

I found reading this novel quite readable but a bit disappointing, I wondered why and kept telling myself everyone for some reason would live in his world like Nagaraj. One of the reasons is that possibly I've long considered his "Swami and Friends" in mind as one of his best so the more I read it, the less I felt convinced as another. However, there are a few points I would like to share and tell why it is still interesting.

First, Narayan has typically written his novels based on rural India in which there are many things in common geographically and agriculturally so reading this excerpt depicting the area where the two brothers met and how Nagaraj idly reacted and Gopu sarcastically replied reminds me of rural Thailand:
… He remained silent and thoughtful. They were now in a banana grove with bunches still ripening on their stalks. The green glare from the broad leaves waving seemed to him soothing, and he declared, 'How green is this shade!'
'Banana is always green, what is there to wonder about like a baby?'
… (p. 54)
Second, For those who first read him, they might think his novels generally look readable due to their words, style and grammar. In fact, the more we read, the more he subtly presents unfamiliar words to his readers like something new to taste. For instance, we would come across 'incongruous' (p. 88), 'sacrilegious' (p. 130), 'cadaverous' (p. 137), etc. Therefore, reading his works is also something challenging in disguise to those who think they know all as well.

Third, we would of course appreciate Narayan's sense of humor in every chapter so gradually we learnt to like and admire Nagaraj's amiable ways of looking at things, that is, he tended to be easy-going, religiously-minded regarding whatever came or whoever said anything. He simply kept reflective like a sage and talked when necessary, so his character was quite different from his brother's. Gopu tended to be more authoritative and didn't care whether his words embarrassed his brother or not. It is amusing to read how he rebuked in advance twice before Nagaraj feeling ill at ease would try to evade his demanding queries, as we can see from the excerpts:
… Nagaraj was saying, 'Mother, why don't you go in and rest? Visitors are gone - I'll also turn in for a couple of hours' rest in my room -' Gopu overheard Nag's words and said at once, 'Nagu, don't try to get away. I've business with you. Come to my room.'
… (p. 33)
And on another occasion:
… He got up abruptly to go out of the room under the pretext of finding if dinner was ready. His brother, now settled on the easy chair in the room, said, 'Don't get up and try to escape. You have not lost the habit yet! Listen to me. You should have turned him back on the very first day. Instead of that you petted and pampered him, without even asking whether he took my permission before leaving home.'
'Yes, I asked him whether he had your ---'
'What did he say?'
'I don't remember,' Nagaraj said.
… (p. 42)
To conclude, we may not expect to enjoy reading this as a hilarious novel due to its Narayan-style plot in its Indian context but we would definitely enjoy its rich, funny and worldly dialogs as observed and taken part by Nagaraj and his key characters in the world they would live vividly in our imaginings.