Summary of Swami and Friends

    

Summary :-

Swami and Friends(1935) ,is a pure art  of childhood written by R K Narayan. He is  a pure artist of Indian English literature. He has also gone through the experiences of journalist as his career. First of all, he writes for newspapers and magazines then he starts writing as a pure writer. His work may be classified into different categories as political novels, domestic novels and sensational novels. He has written about 10 novels and more than 150 short stories.In learning about the town "Malgudi", readers are introduced to Swaminathan and his friends in  his novel, a group which includes Somu, Sankar, Mani and Pea. They have a very close friendship despite their differences, which doesn't seem to follow the phrase, "Birds of a feather flock together". Graham Greene said, "It is a classical school boy story of a child, written with complete objectivity, with a humour strange for our fiction, closer to Chekhov than to any other English writer with the same underlying sense of beauty and sadness "

                                           This is the story of Swami, an average and obscure boy and his friend Somu, the self important monitor and his  friends group is introduced to Rajam, the son of a new police officer in Malgudi. Problem is that, no one in the group wants to accept him as a friend, but eventually Swaminathan and Mani do. This upsets Somu, Sankar, Pea, begin the degradation of their previously inseparable bond. The quarrel among the friends is unique in this novel. Simply, I am going to say frankly that One day, Swaminathan decides to join a nationalist group to protest the British that occupy India. The mob of youth, violent in nature, inspires Swami to throw a rock through the window of his superintendent's office. Rajam's father catches Swami, and punishes him. He is forced to switch off the school, overall his life changes for the worst condition. However, Rajam eventually forgives him.

                      To light the tension between them, Rajam forms a cricket team called M.C.C. Swami  is invited by his friends,but the team practices before Swami's new school lets out, so Rajam quickly becomes infuriated. He says that Swami cannot miss a match with another local team, Y.M.U., even he will not speak to Swami any more.The headmaster of Swami's school does not allow him to leave early for the cricket from there to play. In anger, he throws his cane out from the window. Not wanting to know what will happen next, he runs out of the building and away from the town of Malgudi. He gets lost in his adventure but is eventually found.

                           Lastly, Rajam is on a train leaving for another area in India. Swami tries to convince him with the help of Mani that they should stay as friends but Rajam refuses to look at him and depart from  the station. I think, this is the most sensitive idea of Narayan's childhood. The story of this novel shows human separation, domestic violence and disputes among friends including social impact. His tender efforts but admirable in human sense.