The other day I discovered a community on the web dedicated to RK Narayan's "Swami & Friends".The book is a classic and like all great works of art remains timeless.The essence of the book is the simplicity of the character and an almost poignant innocense which seems lost in the fast paced world of today.Anyone who has grown up with Shankar Nag's wonderful series "Malgudi Days" cant disassociate Swami from Manjunath-the child actor who played the lead role in the series.Swami and his chums remind us of our long lost childhoods.Swami detests homework,loves cricket and cant seem to understand for the life of him why his father keeps meddling in his affairs.On monday mornings,Swami prays that an earthquake would drown "Albert Mission"-his school for in the revelery of the weekend he has forgotten his homework!. Swami's pal Mani is a boisterous character who brags of fighting ghosts with his cricket bat.There is something splendidly original and moving with the stories of swami's exploits that never ceases to inspire me.I would rate this work higher than Harry Potters of this world.Its ironic that RK Narayan for all his wizardry never achieved the cult following which he richly deserved.Nevertheless,Swami continues to live in the countless of people who at some point in their lives were swami themselves!.
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