The Vendor of Sweets

The Vendor of Sweets

First US edition
Author	R. K. Narayan
Country	India
Language	English
Published	1967 (Viking Press (US))

The Vendor of Sweets (1967), by R. K. Narayan, is the biography of fictional Indian town, Malgudi; his conflict with his estranged son and how he finally leaves for renunciation, overwhelmed by the sheer pressure and monotony of his life.

The novel was produced into Mithaivalla, part of the Hindi TV series, Malgudi Days, and was subsequently dubbed into English.

Plot^[1]

Jagan is a 55-year-old sweetmeat vendor, a successful businessman, a vehement follower of Mahatma Gandhi and an honest, hardworking and humble resident of the fictional suburb, Malgudi, India. In his youth, he was influenced deeply by Mahatma Gandhi and left his studies and his peaceful life to become an active member in India's struggle for freedom from the British Empire. The Bhagavad Gita forms the staple of his life; he tries to act on the principles described in the great epic. Naturopathy forms the pivotal of his life and he even desires to publish his natural way of living in the form of a book, but it becomes obvious that it is a futile dream as the draft has been gathering dust in the office of the local printer, Nataraj, for the last five years. Jagan wears hand spun cloth that signifies purity to him, and he has been commended for it by Gandhi himself. In his early days Jagan's wife, Ambika, dies from a brain tumour and leaves him to care for his only son, Mali.

Mali is gradually spoilt by Jagan and his almost 'maternal' obsession towards his son's life. Later, in his college days, Mali displays his deep dislike for education and says that he would like to be a 'writer', which Jagan at first inteprets as a clerical occupation. Afterwards, Mali decides to leave to America to study Creative Writing. He gets his passport and tickets ready without even informing Jagan about his plans. But, Jagan accepts this diversion with good heart and treasures every letter received from Mali and proudly exhibits it to anyone whom he met in his daily activities. A few years later, Mali returns to Malgudi very Westernized and brings along a half-American, half-Korean girl, Grace, whom Mali claims is his 'wife'. Jagan assumes that they are married according to the social norms and standards, but also realizes that Mali's relationship with him has further eroded. However, Jagan develops an affection for Grace and feels that Mali is not giving her the attention she deserves.

Soon Mali expresses his grandiose scheme of starting a machine factory with the association of some anonymous business partners from America. He asks his father to invest in this factory, but Jagan is unwilling to provide the financial infrastructure of this venture, which causes more friction between Jagan and Mali. Troubled by this turmoil, Jagan decides to retire from active working. Through an unexpected meeting with the top businessmen of the region, Jagan comes across the 'bearded man', a rather eccentric hairdyer whose eloquence makes Jagan contemplate on his dull and monotonous life. He starts to develop a desire to renunciate from his life, and suddenly falls into a recollection of his happy past with his family and his wife, which further strengthens his need for reconciliation. As this happens, Mali is caught by the police for driving under the influence of alcohol and deserts his wife. Jagan then asks his cousin to make sure that Mali stays in prison for some time, so that he can learn his mistakes. Jagan also writes a cheque to the cousin so that he can buy a plane ticket to Grace so she can go back to her motherland.

Main characters

• Jagan: The protagonist. A follower of Gandhi in his youth, he is now a sweetmeat vendor by profession. The novel portrays him as a typical Homo narayanus; Jagan is a timid man, not notably wealthy or poverty-stricken, and yearns to spend life with the least troubles. He appears to be an extremely orthodox and peaceful man. His only son is the pearl of his eye. Occasionally, Jagan exploits religion and his Gandhian principles to save himself from his mental agitations and Mali's various attempts at bulldozing his peace.
• Mali: Jagan's son. An ambitious young man, spoilt by Jagan, he has a strong repugnance towards the educational system of India, and desires for more modern prospects of business. Blames his father for his mother's death. After studying Creative Writing in America, he comes back to his hometown and tries to "modernize" it.
• The cousin: The 'man-about-town', he claims his cousinhood with everyone in Malgudi. He proves to be helpful in creating a communicative bridge between Jagan and Mali. He is quite an affable character who displays appreciation of Jagan's simple Gandhian lifestyle and simultaneously gets on well with Mali and his various modern notions. Close criticism may prove him to be a ambitious, calculating man with the intention of gaining the control of Jagan's business, which he does at the end of the story.
• Grace: a half-American, half-Korean girl whom Mali brings home, claiming that she is his wife. She works like a catalyst between the two conflicting cultures, and tries to integrate into the Indian culture that she has entered into, but results only in strengthening the cultural difference.

Criticism

The novel is composed in simple, lucid English that can be read and understood without turning over the pages after a single read. The compositional language is no doubt, plain– to such an extent that even a young school child’s vocabulary will be able to comprehend the sense of the tale.

Narayan's skill of writing that allows him to use English to breathe life into his stories with ease can be easily found in this novel. Although Narayan's native language was Tamil, he utilized English in such a way that allowed his readers to step into the streets of Malgudi, and allowed them to feel the same aromas, the same, bright Indian sunlight and the same feelings of his characters.

"Reading Narayan, you soon see, is a little like sitting on a rocking chair in a steadily churning train; the story is always pushing forward, with not a wasted sentence or detail, and yet its theme and often its characters are all about going nowhere and getting nothing done."

-Pico Iyer in Midnight's Uncle, an introduction to The Vendor of Sweets.

References