Secretly, Jagan’s mind was bothered as to why there was always an invisible barrier between him and his son. He had never been harsh to the boy. Yet, reading a sense into the boy’s actions was fatiguing, like the attempt to spell out a message in a half familiar script!
R.K. Narayan:
Every Indian is well acquainted with the portrayals of South Indian primitive village life by the great author R.K.Narayan, the creator of the fictional yet famous Malgudi.
His articles, fictional stories, retold epics and non-fictional work are pleasures for every reader, young or old. ‘Swami and Friends’ and ‘Malgudi days’ are his best known and widely read books even today.
‘The Vendor of Sweets’ is a delicious story by him and stands next after ‘Swami and Friends’ on my list of favourite books by R.K.N. It illustrates the communication and generation gap between a simple businessman and his ambitious son.
Story:
Jagan, a 55 year old sweets vendor, is an honest, hardworking and humble resident of Malgudi. He is a staunch believer in Gandhian ideologies of simple living. Despite owning a sweetmeat shop, he himself eats food without salt/sugar. His only son Mali is the apple of his eye. Jagan lost his wife when Mali was a little boy and ever since, has tried his best to keep his son happy and fulfill all his little desires. But the nervous father is faced with awkwardness and embarrassment while communicating with his teenage son. The Gandhian ideologies don’t seem to go well with the young blood. On the other hand, the sky-high ambitions of the son are beyond understanding of the father.
One fine day, Jagan is shocked to know that Mali is no more interested in studying and wants to start story-writing after quitting B.A. in college half way.
A glimpse of the awkward communication between father and son is:
Father: What are you writing now?
Son: A novel
Father: Oh wonderful! Where did you learn to write novels?
Son: Are you examining me?
Father: Oh no, I’m just interested, that’s all. What story are you writing?
Son: I can’t tell you now. It may turn out to be a poem after all. I don’t know.
Father: But don’t you know what you are going to write when you sit down to write?
Son: No! It’s not like frying sweets in your shop.
Jagan’s life is further thrown into turmoil when Mali expresses his desire to go to America to learn story- writing. Jagan is aghast that one should cross seven seas to learn the art of story-telling when any village granny should serve the purpose well! As usual, he lacks courage to confront his son on any matter and Mali eventually leaves for America. He periodically sends letters back home and Jagan’s initial bewilderment transforms into ecstasy and pride for his American son. His pride is short-lived and turns into embarrassment, since Mali returns after 3 years, a married man! His wife is an American cum Korean girl. Now, out of his story-writing mania, Mali expresses his desire to open a story-writing machine factory. However, as any other father would desire, Jagan wants his son to take up his sweets shop. This adds up to Mali’s disgust and frustration!
How will Jagan free himself from the coils of this complicated situation? How will Jagan understand his new daughter-in-law when his own son is beyond comprehension? Will the invisible barrier between father and son be prevalent for life?
My opinion:
Jagan’s character has been wonderfully portrayed and seems straight out of real life. The narrative is simple, humourous and depicts the South Indian life with utmost detail. The protagonist’s authoritative tone with his shop workers and cooks contrasts with his helplessness while dealing with his own son. A single parent’s tribulations and challenges while bringing up a son has been handled delicately, yet satirically such that there is no room for boredom throughout the book.
Initially, I felt the ending was a bit abrupt and hurried. But, on later thought looking at it from Jagan’s point of view, realized that it is most apt ending to the story!
The story itself is quite short, but there are many irrelevant side-tracks that contribute to lengthening the number of pages. A few of such incidents are Jagan diving into his reminiscences of childhood, interesting episodes of his youth, his freedom struggle as a Gandhi follower, etc. Although these do not provide much value to the main story narrative, they succeed in adding a new flavour to make the story ‘tastier’. I read out a couple of these episodes to my grandpa who thoroughly enjoyed it! This one’s definitely recommended for lovers of light fiction.