Beautiful in its simplicity and gentle
narration, a slow meandering of events, true to form, this is a novel by
R.K.Narayan. He writes in his usual rambling style, but very contrarily sets
his novel in the political background of the Indian Freedom struggle. Many
might say that this is the personal story of a lazy and complacent young man, who
meets and falls in love with a young woman, a disciple of Mahatma Gandhi and
involved in the freedom struggle - his travails, reluctant transformation and
ultimate union with the girl, where the political events unfold in the
peripheral vision.
Yes, it is Sriram, the young man's personal story. But there is also another story woven along with this. The title is completely revealing of the essence of this latter story. The unusual component is the fictional appearance of Mahatma Gandhi, which the author has handled brilliantly. The conversations and episodes with Gandhiji reflect a keen and minute understanding of not only the man and his actions, but also his impact on the thousands of people that he met and how the freedom struggles were conducted at individual levels. There is a deeper understanding of the principles and foundation of the Mahatma which alone would enable one to extrapolate his words and actions to hypothetical / fictional situations in such a manner that a reader, be her casually acquainted with Gandhiji's messages or one who has studied him intensely, cannot quarrel with the author's portrayal of the Mahatma.
This same quality I found in the movie Lage Raho Munna Bhai, the instinctive recognition of the truth and rightness of the answers of the on-screen Gandhi - that "this is what Mahatma Gandhi would have said or done, given this situation" feeling.
Whether he wanted to or not, the author also draws for his readers a clear picture of how the freedom struggle reached so many villages, how millions joined the congress after Gandhiji entered the scene. R.K. Narayan does this by writing instances and episodes of Gandhi's visits to the villages, how people wait for a glimpse of the Mahatma everywhere that he goes, the moral charisma and authority that he exudes, how people are won over by his compassion and charm and how youth across the country join the national movement by doing something in their own neighbourhood. He also writes of episodes where many such youth follow Gandhiji's squad from one village to another and are chided by others for not being responsible to their own role of spreading the freedom struggle in their own place.
We know all this to be true from writings of other people of that time. The difference for me has been that, while earlier I knew these as events that happened at a particular time period, "Waiting for the Mahatma" brought to me in a personal and individual sense the inspiration and motivation that the man gave to each of his countrymen who encountered him in any way.
Yes, it is Sriram, the young man's personal story. But there is also another story woven along with this. The title is completely revealing of the essence of this latter story. The unusual component is the fictional appearance of Mahatma Gandhi, which the author has handled brilliantly. The conversations and episodes with Gandhiji reflect a keen and minute understanding of not only the man and his actions, but also his impact on the thousands of people that he met and how the freedom struggles were conducted at individual levels. There is a deeper understanding of the principles and foundation of the Mahatma which alone would enable one to extrapolate his words and actions to hypothetical / fictional situations in such a manner that a reader, be her casually acquainted with Gandhiji's messages or one who has studied him intensely, cannot quarrel with the author's portrayal of the Mahatma.
This same quality I found in the movie Lage Raho Munna Bhai, the instinctive recognition of the truth and rightness of the answers of the on-screen Gandhi - that "this is what Mahatma Gandhi would have said or done, given this situation" feeling.
Whether he wanted to or not, the author also draws for his readers a clear picture of how the freedom struggle reached so many villages, how millions joined the congress after Gandhiji entered the scene. R.K. Narayan does this by writing instances and episodes of Gandhi's visits to the villages, how people wait for a glimpse of the Mahatma everywhere that he goes, the moral charisma and authority that he exudes, how people are won over by his compassion and charm and how youth across the country join the national movement by doing something in their own neighbourhood. He also writes of episodes where many such youth follow Gandhiji's squad from one village to another and are chided by others for not being responsible to their own role of spreading the freedom struggle in their own place.
We know all this to be true from writings of other people of that time. The difference for me has been that, while earlier I knew these as events that happened at a particular time period, "Waiting for the Mahatma" brought to me in a personal and individual sense the inspiration and motivation that the man gave to each of his countrymen who encountered him in any way.
