R.K. Narayan (1906-2001) is one of the most influential and respected Indian writers. This book is a critical study of Narayan’s novels of the common people, their aspirations and struggles, their pieties and rituals, their myths and superstitions. The fictional town of Malgudi in pre-industrial Southern India is the setting for these timeless stories. The book presents a holistic view of Malgudi and its people from multiple perspectives, such as social, cultural, religious, and economic. In Narayan’s novels, tradition and modernity, fiction and reality, and mythology and history seamlessly merge to craft the narrative. They explore the impact of caste, class, and religion on the individual and the community, as well as the interface between the traditional and the modern, and the past and the present, highlighting the inherent pulls and tensions in society. However, even as Malgudi clings to its conservative past, it opens its doors to urban, educated, and professional men and women from the outside. The book will interest students, teachers, and scholars of literature.

Four gems, with new introductions, mark acclaimed Indian writer R. K. Narayan's centennial Introducing this collection of stories, R. K. Narayan describes how in India "the writer has only to look out of the window to pick up a character and thereby a story." Composed of powerful, magical portraits of all kinds of people, and comprising stories written over almost forty years, Malgudi Days presents Narayan's imaginary city in full color, revealing the essence of India and of human experience. This edition includes an introduction by Pulitzer Prize- winning author Jhumpa Lahiri. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

The Best Of A Lifetime S Work Novels, Short Stories, Essays, Travel Pieces And Short Non-Fiction Of One Of The World S Finest Writers Comes Together In Malgudi Landscapes. Skilfully Edited And Introduced By S. Krishnan, This Selection Brings Malgudi, The Enchanting Little South Indian Town That R.K. Narayan Created, To Glorious And Colourful Life.

This is the story of Nataraj, who earns his living as a printer in the little world of Malgudi, an imaginary town in South India. Nataraj and his close friends, a poet and a journalist, find their congenia l days disturbed when Vasu, a powerful taxidermist, moves in with his stuffed hyenas and pythons, and brings his dancing-women up the printer's private stairs. When Vasu, in search of larger game, threatens the life of a temple elephant that Natara j has befriended, complications ensue that are both laughable and tragic.

R. K. Narayan (1906—2001) witnessed nearly a century of change in his native India and captured it in fiction of uncommon warmth and vibrancy. Swami and Friends introduces us to Narayan’s beloved fictional town of Malgudi, where ten-year-old Swaminathan’s excitement about his country’s initial stirrings for independence competes with his ardor for cricket and all other things British. Written during British rule, this novel brings colonial India into intimate focus through the narrative gifts of this master of literary realism.

A venerable tiger, old and toothless now, looks back over his life from cubhood and early days roaming wild in the Indian jungle. Trapped into a miserable circus career as 'Raja the magnificent', he is then sold into films (co-starring with a beefy Tarzan in a leopard skin) until, finding the human world too brutish and bewildering, he makes a dramatic bid for freedom. R.K. Narayan's story combines Hindu mysticism with ripe Malgudi comedy, viewing human absurdities through the eyes of a wild animal and revealing how, quite unexpectedly, Raja finds sweet companionship and peace.

This book brings together expert research on the history of psychological assessment across the continents and spanning over 50 countries.

This research work spins around the issue of cultural allotropy, which we all have experienced at different levels; however, a conscious realization regarding it might be missing to some extent. Centuries of political intervention and subjugation by foreign countries results in the presence of a mixed culture and this side-by-side flourishing of two cultures seems now an accepted fact, a part of mans consciousness. But the presence of two contradictory sets of valuesone not fully accepted and the other not totally rejectedgives rise to a difficult situation in the face of the conflicting claims of the two. This gives rise to a mixing of cultures, a blend which in other words may be called cultural allotropythat is, existence of the culture of a particular region in two or more forms, having different and mixed properties at the emotional or intellectual level at a given point of time. Going beyond the political subjugation in the era of globalization, it has now become a matter of economic and cultural subjugation. Undoubtedly, our cultural allotropy is a byproduct of modern economic compulsions also. Through different Indian English novelists, I have tried to intrigue the issues via different portrayals and characters and finally posed a question, What is it to be an Indian?

Stories are everywhere around us, from the ads on TV or music video clips to the more sophisticated stories told by books or movies. Everything comes wrapped in a story, and the means employed to weave the narrative thread are just as important as the story itself. In this context, there is a need to understand the role storytelling plays in contemporary society, which has changed drastically in recent decades. Modern global society is no longer exclusively dominated by the time-tested narrative media such as literature or films because new media such as videogames or social platforms have changed the way we understand, create, and replicate stories. The Handbook of Research on Contemporary Storytelling Methods Across New Media and Disciplines is a comprehensive reference book that provides the relevant theoretical framework that concerns storytelling in modern society, as well as the newest and most varied analyses and case studies in the field. The chapters of this extensive volume follow the construction and interpretation of stories across a plethora of contemporary media and disciplines. By bringing together radical forms of storytelling in traditional disciplines and methods of telling stories across newer media, this book intersects themes that include interactive storytelling and narrative theory across advertisements, social media, and knowledge-sharing platforms, among others. It is targeted towards professionals, researchers, and students working or studying in the fields of narratology, literature, media studies, marketing and communication, anthropology, religion, or film studies. Moreover, for interested executives and entrepreneurs or prospective influencers, the chapters dedicated to marketing and social media may also provide insights into both the theoretical and the practical aspects of harnessing the power of storytelling in order to create a cohesive and impactful online image.