Chapter-3. The Twilight Zone of Humour in the works of Narayan and Laxman. Narayan in one of his articles The Fiction Writer in India (1953)

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1 Chapter-3 The Twilight Zone of Humour in the works of Narayan and Laxman Narayan in one of his articles The Fiction Writer in India (1953) ( first published in The Atlantic Monthly) had elaborated upon some of the qualities required by the novelist for a comic portrayal of the world. 1 These include the mood of comedy along with detached observation. This entails that perception of life when we laugh at human frailities and where we allow the confusion to be a laughable matter. In earlier novels he observes human weaknesses and smiles at them. In the same essay he goes on to present the chief characteristic of his fiction which is the depiction of the crisis in the individual soul and its resolution In his middle novels Narayan has a clear eyed perception of human weaknesses and he treats these weaknesses and confusion with a touch of irony and satire. Graham Greene provides an insight into the complex nature of Narayan s comic vision in his introduction to The Financial Expert All of Narayan s comedies have had the undertone of sadness. Their gentle irony and the absence of condemnation remind us how difficult comedy is in the west today farce, savage, boisterous, satirical is easy but comedy needs a strong framework of social convention with which the author sympathises, but which he does not share. 2 Writing in the postwar period Greene contrasts the Indian writer s calm and tolerant humour with the harsh and nihilistic English humour of that period. One can easily perceive this contrast when one compares Kafka s The Trial with the novels of R.K.Narayan. Here Greene identifies three important qualities in Narayan s comedy. 107

2 The blend of humour and sadness, the absence of stern judgment even when indirect criticism is made and the simultaneous presence of involvement with and detachment from, his fictional characters and the demands of their social environment which is the source of Narayan s peculiar brand of affectionate ridicule. In Greene s introduction to The Bachelor of Arts, he draws a comparison between Narayan and Chekov and highlights the bitter-sweet flavour of Narayan s humour Sadness and humour in the later books go hand and hand like twins, as they do in the comedies of Chekov. 3 and this pattern exists in the life of common man too. We find sadness and humour inextricably intertwined in the life of common man and the same is reflected in the twilight zone of humour one finds in the works of these two legends. In the later novels like The Financial Expert Margayya is able to acquire wealth but he is disappointed with his son, in The Guide the moral trial of the protagonist, Raju,is transformed into a huge public fair. The irony implied in this last scene highlights the twilight zone of Narayan s humour where something as tragic as death is contrasted with the spectacle of a fair. Laxman s cartoons express his capacity to observe, analyse and convey a positive message to the common man. His cartoons enable us to smile at ourselves and the world around us lightening our load and brightening our days. To quote Amitabh Bachchan: R.K.Laxman s cartoons have the knack of laying bare hypocrisy and double speak with wit and insight and manage to raise important issues affecting the country. He can make you see any issue clearly and in a new light. With an alacrity that is unrivalled and far surpasses one s imagination Laxman can convert the common man s rage into humour

3 This humour and consummate intelligence is Laxman s legacy to India. For a long time Laxman has provided the readers with some comic relief in their dreary humdrum existence. The bespectacled common man in his checked coat had walked into his cartoon spontaneously. Equally effortlessly he became a silent spectator of events moving with ease from drought stricken villages to the airport to watch foreign delegations arriving, once he even visited the South pole along with a minister of commerce who held bilateral talks with a group of attentive penguins. As time passed by Laxman was surprised to discover that his readers looked upon him not just as a cartoonist but as a profound thinker, a social reformer, a political scientist, a critic of errant politicians and so on. Soon people started writing letters to him voicing their grievances about postal delays, the sloppiness of municipal authorities, inflated electricity bills, bribes in school admissions etc. When Laxman is asked to give the sources of his ideas he usually evades giving a clear answer. According to Laxman, It is impossible to give a serious answer to this and so I usually evade it by some supposedly funny rejoinder. 5 The other questions that had been frequently put to him are, How big are the original cartoons? How long did he take to do them? How many people worked under him? What did the ministers think of his making fun of them? Do they have a sense of humour? Had he ever been arrested? and so on. For all these questions Laxman gave the answers ranging from the flippant to the scholarly depending on the questioners, their interest and mood. There was one question that pulled him into deep introspection. It was, When he looked around,did everything appear funny to him? 109

4 To this question Laxman responded by cogitating and opining that a cartoonist does not lead a charmed life of perpetual fun out of reach of the cares and worries that bedevil his fellowmen. The fluctuating prices of onion affected him in the same way as they delighted or outraged a primary school teacher. Likewise taxes depressed his spirits, bores at the mike and traffic jams drove him crazy. Laxman compared himself to a doctor and stated that surely a doctor does not always look at life in terms of cough,colds, allergies and bronchial inflammations. Similarly, a star of the film world, had enough sense to know that beyond the range of the camera life does not continue to be full of idyllic scenes,sex, songs and ketch-up blood. The admirers of a cartoonist often presume that a cartoonist sees living caricatures and hears rib-tickling dialogue all around him so he comforts himself with the self assurance that his view of life is as banal as that of the next man in the queue for sugar or kerosene. One of the most unique human emotion is humour the ability to laugh. Only human beings possess this trait. Humour or laughter is a reaction to some mode of behavior of others, of one self in relation to others. We tend to feel amused, to laugh at actions of others when we observe something amiss or awkward or contradictory. Western tradition of comic emphasized oddity, eccentricity or strangeness. In eighteenth century Henry Fielding in his Preface to Joseph Andrews(1742) defined the comic as educative, corrective observation of incongruous. William Hazlitt looked at it again in the form of his essay On wit and humour in English comic writers(1819).he drew attention to the human being s ability to laugh is because he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are and what they ought to be. 6 Such knowledge can be both comic and tragic, 110

5 depending on circumstances and the consequences of the situations. Hazlitt relates humour basically to the perception of ludicrous. Wit is an important accompanying talent to show the discrepancy in stated meaning and implied meanings 7. The varieties of humour have different intonation from stern satirical to mildly compassionate. Humour as Henri Bergson explicates plays an important social role. It works as a socially invigorating interpersonal voice; he says comic is cerebral more than emotional response for it requires a detachment from the object seen as comic; an emotional distance is needed to be able to reflect upon it. Humour also has a socially corrective role as by presenting it as comic it implies that something is amiss. It is an important form of social censure for when a person is laughed at to some measure he is intimidated by being humiliated. Humour exposes oddities and eccentricities and also lack of adaptability to changes in one s environment 8. Bergson s analysis that people sometimes become mechnical in their response to the outer reality is very accurate. Many human beings, in some or other matter become rigid or stratified in dealing with the real world. Lack of adaptability, repetition of a fixed form of behavior becomes obvious when writers draw attention to such characteristics or behavior create humour which may not be too critical. It cannot be too mild or sympathetic for some element of criticism becomes visible. William Walsh has described Narayan s novels as serious comedy. In most of his novels Narayan has taken up the theme of giving up passion in life and for achieving this end the protagonist has to go through a process of education and spiritual rebirth. This involves gradual shaking off one s illusions, a process which is painful for the character concerned, presented by the novelist with tolerance and 111

6 affection rather than condemnation or satire. The humour arises from Narayan s sharp eye for oddness, affectation and pretence. The irony as Greene perceptively explains, flows from Narayan s ability to operate both inside and outside the social universe that he presents- he can understand and appreciate the compulsions that make his characters act as they do, and yet at the same time he can clearly see those compulsions in all their mindlessness or lack of relevance or obsolescence or incongruity. This tolerance comes from Narayan s understanding of human existence as a cycle of births till its final release into nothingness. He is a rationalist who believes that most of human prejudices and eccentricities are curable but he also understands that human weaknesses are ingrained to such a level that they remain with one all through one s life. This is exactly how Srinivas feels about the neurotic Ravi in Mr.Sampath, therby enabling him to view Ravi with compassion: Half the madness was his own doing, his lack of self-knowledge, his treachery to his own instincts as an artist, which had made him a battle ground. Sooner or later he shook off his madness and realized his true identity--- though not in one birth, at least a series of them (Mr. Sampath;260). Narayan s humour stems from his close and realistic observation of life. He seems to have the gift for spotting the ludicrous in any situation and for expressing it felicitiously. Even when he is satirical he is never harsh. In the novels Narayan s gentle humour helps to leaven the sombre atmosphere created by the traumatic experiences of the characters at the time of crucial moment of self-recognition. It also draws in the reader and gets him affectionately involved in the life of the characters of his fictional world. In the novel The Bachelor of Arts, the opening passage 112

7 highlights the natural propensity of Chandran to avoid commitment ( which makes his later stubbornness all the more incongruous):- Chandran was just climbing the steps of the college union when Natesan, the secretary, sprang on him and said, you are just the person I was looking for. You remember your old promise? No, said Chandran promptly to be on the safe side - (The Bachelor of Arts 1). Here is an instance showing how talkative man punctures the pretentiousness of Mr. Rann,who claims that he had come to Malgudi on a United Nations project. He deflates his sense of self importance and puts him neatly in his place. Project is a self-contained phrase and may or may not be capable of elaboration. I come across the word in newspapers and among academicians, engineers and adventurers. One might hear the word and keep quiet, not probing further. Sometimes a project may involve nothing more than swatting flies and sending reports to the headquarters. 9 Narayan s humour also stems from pitting two incongruous details against each other. The following description of Swaminathan s drill class brings out the oddity of the Indians to emulate the customs of their colonizers. As soon as the evening bell rang, he lined up with the rest in the drill ground. But contrary to the custom, he had not taken off his coat and cap. All the others were in their shirts, with their dhotis tucked up ( Swami and Friends140). Krishna Sen opines, The spectacle of Indian school boys flaunting western-style caps,coats and shirts atop dhotis is a typical Narayan touch rendered in his typical style succinct and understated. 10 One source of Narayan s humour is spotting the oddities in his character when Swami, on an impulse boldly confronts Ebenezar when he pillories the Hindu Gods. Swami says that if Christ was a God then why did he eat meat and drink wine but 113

8 when he carries his father s letter to the headmaster Swaminathan becomes timid and weak and he thinks that he would not mind if a hundred Ebenezars said a thousand times worse things about the Gods. Narayan s comedy is inherent in the behavior of his people eccentric paradoxical Malgudians who are grateful to life and death despite the incredible complications affecting even the most elementary aspects of their existence. 11 Chandran s immaturity and ficklemindedness is exposed when Chandran who had broken away from the normal routine of life and had become a sanyasi on being inconsolably grieved after his separation from his beloved shows surprising readiness to marry Susila, a girl chosen by his parents. He secretly and excitedly compares his life partner Susila, with Malathi whom he could not marry due to a freak of destiny. He expresses his feelings: Her name,music, figure, face and everything about her was divine. Susila!- Malathi, not a spot beside Susila (The Bachelor of Arts,162). One particular passage is worth quoting as an example of Narayan s sympathetic comedy. Here Narayan s depiction of Chandran s character and normal life bring out not only the author s keen observation of young people, their social manners but also his affectionate tolerance of the simple pleasures of life. The ability to laugh at the simplicity and pretensiousness of rituals that were created brought together the newly acquired taste for cinema and the traditional habit of enjoying betel leaf for relaxation.narayan shows the urban, modern youth deriving pleasure from the new means of entertainment and traditional ways of living as the passage shows. Chandran was none of your business like automatons who go to a cinema, sit there and return home. It was an aesthetic experience to be approached with due preparation. You had to chew the betel leaves and nut, chew gently, until the 114

9 heart was stimulated and threw out delicate beads of perspiration and caused a fine tingling sensation behind the ears; on top of that you had to light a cigarette, inhale the fumes and with the night breeze blowing on your perspiring forehead, go to the cinema, smoke more cigarettes there, see the picture and from there go to an hotel nearby for hot coffee at midnight, take some more betel leaves and cigarettes and go home and sleep. This was the ideal way to set about a night show. Chandran squeezed the maximum aesthetic delight out of the experience (The Bachelor of Arts13). In Mr. Sampath Srinivas who begins the publication of his journal The Banner with great zeal and the resolve that within twelve pages of foolscap he attempted to set the world right should start thinking along the lines of negative quietism and inaction is an oddity of character held up to ridicule. Srinivas thinks, For a moment it seemed to him futile and presumptuous occupation to analyse, criticize and attempt to set things right anywhere (Mr. Sampath63). InThe Painter of Signs which is the result of Narayan s mature creative years Narayan shows Raman, the hero of the novel as a clumsy, young man talking audibly and inaudibly at the same time and this adequately explains his confusion and concern about things. He is determined to establish the age of reason in the world but his weakness for Daisy defies his rational philosophy. He indulges in selfcriticism when his thoughts roam about a woman or when a woman s thigh oversways his mind but sex arrests his attention and he gets completely lost in sex imagery and wish fulfillment. Raman s swaying moods make him comic. Laxman admitted to sometimes wondering at the back of his mind whether his profession had not had a subtle influence on his outlook. After officially closing down 115

10 for the day, he did keep on looking for ideas and oddities subconsciously through all his waking hours. That is why he liked to watch faces and entertained himself standing at street corner as if it were a gallery of portraits in three dimensions. From the eighteen year old filly dancing on the other side of the road to the grubby looking beggar at his heels whose face was hewn out by weather and anxiety and scores of others passing by, Laxman was fascinated to see them all. This occupational pastime of Laxman was not confined just to observing the oddities in the physical features of a person. This habit of his wandered into wider fields and there was a great deal of fun to be derived from studying human character which was beyond the reach of a caricaturist s pencil and was captured only in terms of verbal descriptions. Laxman once said, A large number of people seem either dull, cantankerous, pompous, egoistical or plain stupid to most other people but a modicum of tolerance and objectivity would reveal in all of them the lovable eccentric. 12 Laxman often found humour in the behavior of his friend. He states in his anecdotes that a friend of his became the object of intense hostility over nearly two square miles of his locality because his entire neighbourhood suddenly discovered that he was vainglorious, vulgar, egoistic and despicable. All that his friend had done was that he had celebrated his fiftieth birthday in rather a grand style and in a manner as if no one in the world had ever achieved his type of greatness. He had film music blaring out from loudspeakers turned towards the road right from the early hours of the historic day. He had festooned the trees and potted plants with blinking coloured lights. He had served ice- cream and eatables in keepsake cups and plates embossed with his name and age! Laxman s reaction to this person was different from those of 116

11 his friends. His self glorification did not revolt him. Rather, it amused him and he seemed to him not a wicked fellow but a funny one. He was a character Laxman liked to watch. Another equally interesting character whose company Laxman thoroughly enjoyed was a professor of a university, a peerless authority in his field but generally considered by others a crashing bore! He had this urge to project himself into every conversation whatever the subject under discussion but Laxman always enjoyed his company and sat waiting with eager expectation to see with what ingenuity he would work into each subject that came up in the course of conversation. Once he asked Laxman how he got his ideas for the cartoons and how he set about his work. He seemed so earnest and interested that Laxman decided to take some pains to explain but even before Laxman had cleared his throat to begin, this character started to describe his own daily routine, his morning walks, the evening cigars, the reading posture, the method of preparing for his classroom lectures and so on. At the end this eccentric said he was glad to learn so much about Laxman s work! This man was looked upon as a dreadful blight on social conversation but Laxman liked his company. Laxman could spend hours with him without getting bored, leading him on from the subject of disarmament to dandruff, then on to road repairs and sea voyages and awaited with suppressed delight his grand entry into every subject. To explain his extra ordinary capacity to perceive the comic in otherwise normal characters Laxman cited one more example of his acquaintance he frequently ran into, in his anecdotes. This person was tall and thin and reminded Laxman curiously of a razor. His eyes were perenially red as if he had just come out of a fight.. 117

12 This person was usually found at all cultural events sitting in the first row, whether it was music, dance, a puppet show or a play. One would think he was there to enjoy the evening. But no such pleasures were for the philistines! He was a purist and believed in flagellation. He would sit there listening to the music and wince and squirm in his seat as if he were witnessing a bloody murder while his neighbours enjoyed the performance with open mouthed admiration. At the end of the programme he would come out, his eyes redder, still seething with rage and announce that he felt like breaking the musical instrument over the head of the artist or choking the vocalist for ruining the musical composition, or for pronouncing the words wrong, or for being too slow or too fast. For him our ancient art of dancing is dead and what we have today in its place is a mere circus and it should be banned and the impostors prosecuted! According to this suffering aesthete all actors are hams, all paintings are a huge hoax played on the public and all forms of art are dead and what thrives today are only devices to torture his soul but still Laxman was bemused by his eccentricity. At last one may safely conclude that Laxman s normal vision was tinted by his profession. Laxman opined that the world is no doubt, full of serious minded people who go to work, earn a living and take care of their families but it would be a pretty drab world indeed, if they really are what they seem and not a bit like what cartoonist makes them out to be Another source of humour in Narayan s works is situational humour. In Swami and Friends when Swami s teacher punishes him and he classifies the heads present in the class according to the caps worn by them the reader is filled with mirth and reminded of his own childhood days. In the chapter Rajam and Mani the 118

13 passage where Swami acts as a cord of communication between the two is replete with humour. When Swami and his friends laugh at the oddities of the teachers it makes the reader chuckle. The episode when exams approach and Mani goes to the school clerk s house and places brinjals at his feet in the hope of learning questions and the dialogue between the two is very amusing. Rajam s tremendous interest in organizing and developing the cricket club is hilarious. Rajam s musings when he tries to start a cricket team are very humourous.narayan writes: Rajam realized at this point that the starting of a cricket team was the most complicated problem on earth ( Swami and Friends113). The portraits of the fire-eyed Vedyanagam and the scripture teacher Ebenezar are full of life. The description of fight between Swami and friends makes us double with laughter. Narayan writes: Soon there was a pandemonium. Sankar, Swami and Pea rolling over, tearing, scratching and kicking one another ( S& F,39).Then Rajam s short lecture on friendship and his hair-raising accounts of what hell had in store for persons who fostered enmity makes us smile when the novelist says, A shudder went through the company (S&F,45). In The Bachelor of Arts the preparations made by Chandran s family to catch the flower thief is replete with situational humour. When the gaya navratri festival arrives, Babu,Kamla and Sumati decorate the house with electic lights and dolls. A domestic humour ensues in this way:- Oh, Look at Ranga s turban! screamed Kamla. Hey! You look like a cow, added Sumati. Do I? Ranga bellowed like a cow and sent the children into fits of laughter (The Dark Room,6). 119

14 The temple priest is old and wants to see Savitri with his own eyes before assigning her any duty in the temple. He mistakes Ponni for Savitri. This wrong perception results in humour of the situation. Narayan s characteristic humour is not missing from the novel The English Teacher. The first part of the novel has several instances of sparkling humour. The vain anxiety of Krishna waiting at the Malgudi railway station for his wife and child is an interesting example of humour. I was pacing the little Malgudi railway station in great agitation. I had never known such suspense before. She was certain to arrive with a lot of luggage, and the little child. How was all this to be transferred from the train and the child must not be hurt. I made a mental note, must shout as soon as the train stops: Be careful with the baby. This seemed to be my fevered imagination the all important thing to say on arrival, as otherwise I fancied the child s head was sure to be banged against the doorway--- and how many infants were damaged and destroyed by careless mothers in the process of coming out of trains! Why couldn t they make these railway carriages of safer dimensions? It ought to be done in the interests of baby welfare in India.(The English Teacher 30) How Krishna silences his clock is equally humorous. But one day I learnt by some sort of instinctive experiment that if I placed a heavy book on its crest it stopped shrieking (The English Teacher9). In Mr. Sampath it is difficult to forget the presedential speech of the District Judge in the opening ceremony of The Burning of Kama. His reckless speech beginning with the declaration that he knows nothing about films releases a lot of 120

15 humour. The funny thing is that he launches a attack on mythological subjects forgetting that he had come to perform the switch- on ceremony of a mythological film. When he is gently interrupted he revises his previous stand and starts praising the epics. Again when Srinivas pictures Sampath racked with metaphysical doubts is very humourous. The opening ceremony of the Sunrise pictures is rich in situational humour.the lines when De Mello trembles with anxiety at the reckless handling of the camera by the priests are very amusing.these incongruities are viewed through comic prism and the anomalies are brought to fore just as the critic Gowda says.h.h.anniah Gowda in his paper The Comic Muse and R.K.Narayan states that comedy has been defined as thinking in fun while feeling in earnest. 13 Narayan s sense of humour in The Man Eater of Malgudi is intelligent as well as full blooded. His rich humour in this novel keeps us in a cheerful mood. We love,live and laugh with the humour produced due to the situation like the adjournment lawyer who holds his office above a cotton ware house and cotton fluff is always flying about. Clients who go to him once decide never to go again as they sneeze interminably. In the description in which Natraj explains how he fools people and misleads them to believe that he has many men working in his staff; Narayan writes, Between my parlour and the press hung a blue curtain. No one tried to peer through it. When I shouted for the foreman, compositor, officeboy, binder or accountant people imagined a lot of men working on the other side; if I had been challenged I should have gone in and played the ventriloquist (The Maneater ofmalgudi8). When Vasu forcibly takes Natraj to Mempi village, his misgivings and apprehensions constitute rib- rollicking humour. He thought that Vasu was abducting him. He further muses that in order to pay the ransom they might have to sell off the 121

16 treadle which was rickety and then what he would do without his printing machinery. His over active imagination makes him think that Vasu might keep him confined in a cave. Natraj is so distraught that he starts suspecting Muthu to be an accomplice of Vasu in his abduction. The fear of Natraj when he responds to Rangi s tapping on the grille is hilarious. He thinks that the ghost of the hyena had come back. He shouts and experiences hair raising fear. When Natraj is busy with the preparations for the day of the procession, the description of his mental state produces laughter. Every hour of that day was like a fraction of a second to him. He found the time was slipping from his hand like sand. After sending everyone away he sits down to take stock of all that he had to do before the grand function. He finds his head in a whirl. He was so flustered that he didn t know where to make a start in drawing a schedule. Every item appeared to be important and clamoured for immediate attention. Although they had been working madly for weeks everything seemed to be crowded into the last minute. When Natraj goes to have a last word with Vasu in order to dissuade him from killing Kumarand Vasu taunts him about dodging the responsibility to print his book on wild life, Natraj s reaction is very amusing. He says placatingly, I ll take it tomorrow and finish it, carefully avoiding a mention of the original Heidelberg which was rising to his lips due to his habit. When Muthu lectures Natraj on being obedient to one s wife and cites the example of his uncle who was servile to his wife at the age of sixty; Natraj s thoughts are very comical. He thinks It really amused me, this picture of the bully fawning on his wife at sixty ( The Man Eater of Malgudi). Narayan creates the picture of a man who are bold in public but submit 122

17 meekly to their wives as a humourous play on the gap between public face and private face. When Natraj makes the last desperate attempt to prevent Vasu from carrying out his nefarious design, the entire episode and his internal brooding is hilarious. Natraj broods that if Vasu killed it would teach his wife a lesson to be more rational and scientific. His wife had suspected him of an illicit attraction towards Rangi. He approves of Vasu s stand of being bitter against the whole world for its lack of scientific approach. At the end the situation becomes hilarious when Natraj and his circle of friends start pointing guilty fingers at each other. When Natraj s own son Babu suspects him and takes pride in the outstanding courage shown by the father a delightful comic scene is created due to this contrast between the reality and appearance. The readers convulse with laughter when Natraj flinches and quails. The situation escalates to such a level that his constant companions- Sen and the poet start avoiding his company and the adjournment lawyer converses with him feverishly and declares that he is out of touch with criminal practice. In his eleventh novel The Painter of Signs, there is the portrayal of a common man in the figure of Raman who is a painter of signs. This novel has a humanity, an irony and a bittersweet charm that make it distinctive.it is a sardonic bitter sweet tale of love in modern India. It is funny and poignant at the same time.in this novel conflicts between characters becomes the source of poignant humour. Although a love story between Raman who lives by painting sign boards and an educated individualistic woman Daisy,this novel brings out the unusual tussle of different value systems. 123

18 At the beginning of this novel when the lawyer mentions dirt on the board Raman feels a little panicky and wishes he could jump on the bicycle and run away. It is definitely not the way of a rationalist. He is easily cowed down by any minor crisis and prefers to adopt the easiest way possible.the behaviour of the bookseller who becomes ecstatic at the sight of patterns and designs that actual worms created on the book covers and insides is ridiculous. After meeting Daisy Raman acts like a sentimental fool. His thoughts always dwell on his beloved. He invents excuses to elongate his sittings with her but in all his attempts he is discouraged by her calculated coldness. He puts on coloured glasses while going to meet her because the eye was really the source of mischief.in the initial meeting between Raman and Daisy the exposure of the simple minded Raman who has only known woman like his aunt,to Daisy who is determined to be independent and self governed creates a complete bewilderment in Raman which leads to chaos of emotions in Raman. He is attracted to Daisy yet scared by her individuality. The description of Daisy as she appears to Raman through these coloured glasses is hilarious.here Raman resolves that he would take no interest in women as he wishes to establish that the man-woman relationship was not inevitable and that there were more important things to do in life than marrying.this resolve repeatedly crumbles when he sees Daisy. There is an undercurrent of irony in what he wishes to do(how he wishes to act) and how he really acts. He reasons that love was nothing but a fanciful thought of mind conditioned by story writers, poets and dramatists from time immemorial but he is head over heels in love with Daisy. While he walks behind her he resolutely strives not to watch her back and looks fixedly at his own feet- his discomfiture makes the reader chuckle. 124

19 Irony is also an important element in the comic vision of Narayan. The term irony has its roots in the greek comic character eiron, a clever underdog, who by his wit repeatedly triumphs over the boastful character alazon. Irony is a language device, either in spoken or written form, in which the real meaning is concealed or contradicted by the literal meaning of the words. Irony arises from a sophisticated or resigned awareness of contrast between what is and what ought to be and expresses a controlled pathos without sentimentality. It is a form of indirect criticism that avoids overt praise or censure as in the casual irony of the statement That was a smart thing to do! (meaning very foolish). Irony is inherent in the following passage from Swami and Friends in which the involvement of the native in his own subjugation is exposed. Irony is employed by Narayan in depiction of situation and characters. One situation in which the students are being taught History, the method of the teacher, the content and the approach are so ironical that it cannot be overlooked. Next period they had history. The boys looked forward to it eagerly. It was taken by D.Pillai. He told the boys with a wealth of detail the private histories of Vasco da Gama, Clive, Hastings and others. When he described the various fights in History, one heard the clash of arms and the groans of the slain ( Swami and Friends3). Krishna Sen comments, By representing these historical figures as heroes, D. Pillai seems to be presenting them as role models for the boys, It is ironic that neither the teacher nor the students are alive to the fact that the the clash of the arms and the groans of the slain refer, not to some romantic encounter,but to the colonization of India, which needs to be looked at,not just a stirring story, but more introspectively as the failure of an ancient culture to defend itself from these and other invaders. 14 Narayan drives home the point when he follows up the History class with the scripture 125

20 lesson, and the diatribes of Ebenezar, the Bible master, against the hindu Gods, If those idols and images had life, why did they not parry Mohammed s onslaughts? He then turned to Christianity (Swamiand Friends3). The novel is full of irony of different types. The novelist at places has made ironic exposure of self-esteem. Swami develops a feeling that he is vastly superior and old as he looks at the children of infant standards dabbling in wet clay, trying to shape models. His complete ignorance of the rules of tennis lead him to the conclusion that his father was decidedly the best tennis player because whenever he hit the ball his opponents were unable to receive it and so let it go and hit the screen. Here the omniscient narrator approach builds greater scope for the exercise of irony. Swami s attitude towards Geography and the questions seething in his mind are very original and make us chuckle. Naryan writes: He opened the political map of Europe--- it puzzled him how people managed to live in such a crooked country as Europe and then --- how did these map makers find out what the shape of a country was?--- probably they stood on high towers and copied what they saw below (Swami and Friends 55).In the chapter The Coachman sson, where Mani and Swami try to avenge the deceit of the coachman is replete with humour. We find that Chandran often makes resolve to study seriously but time passes and the resolve solemnly made is hardly kept up. One day when his father was in a puckish,teasing mood commented that every plan must have two trials so the third time Chandran made a resolution he would stick to it. His father s words are full of mild irony. The irony implicit in the title The Financial Expert is the source of humour. Prof. M.K.Naik rightly points out: It is evidently ironical to call a man, who is barely 126

21 literate, a financial expert and again what sort of a financial expert is this man; whose business crashes suddenly making him a pauper overnight. 15 In this novel, the nickname Margayya contains a sharp irony. He shows the needy people the way out of the financial jungle but loses his own way in it. The titles of Narayan s novels often contain multiple ambiguity like The Financial Expert. The Guide also evokes a mixed meaning. It is not very clear whether the author would like to treat Raju seriously as a moral guide of the villagers.as Nagendra Nath Sharan,has stated that in the novel The Guide irony springs as a useful technique and develops into an all embracing vision of life. The title The Guide indicates the all pervading irony which influences the whole action. It points out the moral dilemma in the life of the hero. Raju s transformation is indeed a complex process. The initial comic irony moves slowly but develops the somber colours of tragic irony. The novel opens with the first meeting between Raju and Velan. It sets Raju firmly on the road to enforced sainthood. Perhaps, Velan takes Raju to be a wise person and not yet a saint. As a tourist guide he became an adept in the artof solving his clients problems. Naturally he imparts some advice to Velan and the latter gracefully touches his feet. At this stage the author s comment is ironical He felt he was attaining the stature of a saint (The Guide). Raju s transformation into a saint without any effort on his part reflects the simple mindedness of villagers.the irony here emanates from the incongruity of a freshly released criminal who is mistaken for a holy man. The last scene of the novel shows the incongruity of situation. On one hand there is one man fasting unto death there is a grim trial of identity,faith and concept 127

22 of saintliness and on the other hand there is the contrast of a festive atmosphere or a village fair. There are several situations in the novel The Painter of Signs which are full of comic irony. At the opening of the novel Raman is engaged in polemics with a lawyer who wants his name painted in slanted letters but Raman is a subject-matter specialist and hence he thinks it proper to explain his philosophy of calligraphy to the lawyer: The letters on a lawyer s board must always stand up proudly and not lie supine. The lawyer is a superstitious fellow who is strongly guided by his astrologer. The astrologer has told him that a left slant is good for his ruling star. The cunning lawyer further succeeds in outsmarting the rationalist when the latter brings his signboard duly painted. Now the lawyer does not show the least concern for his name. He finds a little dirt on the surface of the board and cries out: Am I to start my career with dirt on my name? The fact is that the lawyer is preparing himself to cheat the painter of his legitimate due. The lawyer has a mind to start his practice right now by cheating the painter and the irony is that he does not want any dirt on his name. According to Krishna Sen, Narayan s irony in his novels performs the more serious artistic functions of articulating and assessing the moral universe which his characters inhabit, with its peculiarly ambivalent co-existence of appearance and reality, tradition and modernity, spirituality and materialism, idealism and cunning. These characteristics of the milieu are also mirrored in its people. Narayan s characters are ususlly caught in a clash of values. 16 While assessing individual characters one has to bear in mind that the presence of multiple layers in a personality is not to be interpreted as hypocrisy or sin but a lower or less refined stage in the spiritual evolution of the individual which goes 128

23 hand in hand with struggle. The presence of such contradictions and their consequences are most fully realized in the character of Raju in The Guide. Such contradictions are also present in other characters of Narayan such as Jagan, who wishes to live his life following the Gandhian principles but at the same time he is not able to let go of his shrewdness as a businessman that enables him to spin profit. Jagan would not count, the cash yet, but continued to read the Lord s sayings-- - when his staff was gone he put away his scripture book and pulled the drawer of his table half out he made an entry in a small notebook, and then more elaborate entries in a ledger which could be inspected by anyone. In his small notebook, he entered only the cash that came in after six o clock --- This cash was in an independent category, he viewed it as free cash, whatever that might mean, a sort of immaculate conception, self generated,arising out of itself and entitled to survive without any reference to any tax (The Vendor of Sweets14). Krishna Sen comments that assorted jumbling of very valuable things like the cash and discarded photographs create a moral irony that is highly engaging. Krishna Sen comments that the cash hidden in the loft alongside the discarded unframed photograph of Mr. Noble, an Englishman and erstwhile district collector the family children had substituted in its glassed frame the picture of a God and hung it up. This collocation of apparent illogicalities- Mr. Noble of the British raj consigned to the loft, the hindu God in his place, the unaccounted cash as immaculate conception, the juxtaposition of the scripture book with the official accounts ledger and the unofficial notebook- all point to the countless negotiations that a human being needs to undertake in order to survive

24 At one place in the novel Jagan tries to follow the Gandhian principles literally by giving away his sweets at a measly sum of money and reading out to his cooks books on Gandhian philosophy during working hours. The result is chaotic and When Jagan decides to renounce the world but he clutches on to his cheque book. Here Narayan has employed his irony to point out the complexities of human existence. Rene Welleck has quoted Friedrich Schelgel s dictum that irony is the recognition of the fact that the world in its essence is paradoxical and that an ambivalent attitude alone can grasp its contradictory totality. This statement hits the nail on the head in bringing out the function of irony in Narayan s novels. Thus while Narayan s humour brings out the oddities and strangeness of the Malgudians and their world, the irony adds the undercurrent of seriousness and sadness by revealing the complex nature of human life. A notable critic Susan Lever has commented that Narayan s novel The Vendor of Sweets, plays off misreading of various kinds to achieve its comedy. The principal difficulty, of course, arises out of Jagan s inability to read his son, Mali.--- Jagan s bits and pieces of knowledge come together in a world view which is both well meaning and mistaken his suggested cure for his wife s brain tumour appears cruelly inadequate and his concern for simplicity does not prevent him from presiding over a successful sweet business.---in The Vendor of Sweets Narayan does not offer us enlightenment through the perspective of Jagan--- Jagan remains a flawed human being, just as unable to fathom the mysteries of human nature as he was at the beginning. She calls the novel the comedy of incomplete understanding. 18 Priyanka Singh comments, Narayan s comedy is classical art,profound in feeling and delicate in control.narayan has written stories in which humour arises out of 130

25 situation or character or stories in which situation and character combine to produce the humourous effect.narayan has excelled in producing humour of situation as well as of character. 19 William Walsh states about the novels of R.K. Narayan, the serious and comic flow in out of one another throughout in an intricate, inseparable alliance instances of ironic humour are found in almost all the pages of his novels. 20 At times humour in Narayan s novels stems from witty replies,or humourous comments by the author. This kind of humour is called verbal humour. Most of Narayan s novels are full of the characters speaking about very common and ordinary situations that occur in the life of common people like a child reluctant to go to school, a wife taken sick or the interaction between husband and wife. Narayan s own sense of incongruities and contradictions in the human behaviours in the day-to- day occurrence make such observations and remarks very humourous. Limiting oneself to a few examples given below an attempt is made to quote a few examples.in The Bachelor of Arts this kind of humour is apparent in the conversation between Chandran and college union secretary, Natesan before and after the debate.narayan s depiction of these ordinary citizens of Malgudi is free from any touch of bitterness or sarcasm.in The Dark Room when Babu wants to cut school under the pretext of a severe headache, Ramani intervenes and compels him to go to school. At this point Ramani s note on headache is full of intelligent humour. Listen, Ramani said to Savitri, Bear this in mind. There is a golden law of headaches. They come in time for school and leave in time for cricket. Here is another instance which relieves Susila of her illness and anxiety to a great extent in The English Teacher. The doctor attending on sick Susila examines her. Naturally she becomes curious and asks the doctor that 131

26 when she could move about again. The doctor says that all her life she would be moving about the house and she should use this opportunity for a holiday. Then he narrates an anecdote that in a house a daughter in-law fell ill and was in bed for two weeks or so and she put on weight. Her husband requested the doctor to extend her rest for a fortnight or so as this was the only way that she could avoid the harassment caused by her mother-in-law. Sriram, the hero of the novel Waiting for the Mahatma in his conversation with his ladylove reveals his witty nature. This battle of wits makes us smile :- You are too sharp tongued, he replied, It is a wonder they tolerate you here where peace and kindness must be practiced. Bharti retorts, I am practicing kindness otherwise I would not be talking to you at all. Sriram s first encounter with the Mahatma takes place at a Malgudi public meeting held in hot sun. He is very thirsty, looks at a cucumber vendor and thinks that waiting for the mahatma makes one very thirsty. This is indeed the delightful thinking of a careless youth. His accidental meeting with Bharati for a very short time marks a turning point in his life. He attends the Mahatma s lecture in the hope of meeting that girl again. Gandhi talks about loving one s family and Sriram s mind is engrossed in Bharti. All the time he thinks of loving her. This undercurrent of personal interest when facing a larger public debate or issue is comical. In The Man eater of Malgudi Natraj s inner thoughts when he answers the greetings of the milkman are : Tell me the secret of your magic: how you manage to extract a milk-like product out of that miserable cow like creature to supply thirty families as you do every morning. What exactly are you conjuror or milk vendor? (The Man eater of Malgudi;9) Narayan depicts the everyday practices of 132

27 legal quarrels among families in a lighter vein and shows how the adjournment lawyer got his name, The lawyer, known as the adjournement lawyer for his ability to prolong a case beyond the wildest dream of a litigant (TMOM10). When Natraj is reminiscing about how his ancestral property was divided a sentence is there where he says, Such things as could not be split up were given to those who clamoured the loudest (TMOM,11). When Natraj describes Sastri as a tyrant when it came to printing labels there is one paragraph relating to his thoughts about Sastri Natraj thinks that encumbrances such as wife, children were for lesser men like him whereas Sastri s place was at the typeboard and treadle. The relation of employer and employee was reversed at the press whenever there was an emergency. The thought that darts through Natraj s mind when he sees Vasu for the first time is as follows. He says, My first impulse was to cry out, whoever you may be, why don t you brush your hair? (TMOM,15)The portrait of Sen, the journalist who was always loudly analyzing Nehru s policies is delicious comedy. The verbal exchange between him and Vasu when they come very close to exchanging blows is hilarious. In the end Vasu retreats saying that he would retaliate in the same vein only when hit first but he himself would not initiate a physical scuffle. Vasu s views on man-woman relationship are amusing enough. He says, only fools marry and they deserve all the trouble they get. I really do not know why people marry at all. If you like a woman have her by all means. You don t have to own a coffee estate because you like a cup of coffee now and then and he smiled, more and more pleased with his own wit (33-34).In delineating the humble people 133

28 Narayan s gentle irony and satire operates all the time. Each glimpse of these humbly placed people reveals their own minor tricks of the trade Narayan s remark about the corrupt practices of the bus conductor are amusing. Narayan writes, He was a compassionate conductor who filled his pockets with the wayside fare, never issuing a ticket. At this rate he could buy a Rolls Royce rather than a Morris Manor (45-46). When the Tailor objects to Kumar s departure from the village to the city and Muthu tries to placate him Natraj s musings are very comic. Narayan writes, The tailor was disconsolate until Muthu poured oblatory tea into him, unwashed glass after unwashed glass. At this rate, I said to myself Muthu will be a bankrupt, if he has to treat all his elephant associates to tea (TMOM,101). Describing the poet s mania for monosyllables Narayan writes, Looking at his mild face one would never imagine that he was a fanatic, but he was an implacable foe of all disyllables and this drove him to attack and pulverize polysyllables so that they might fit into his scheme (TMOM117). Numerous witty one-liners are spangled throughout the novel like:- When neighbours complain of the stench arising from his office, Narayan writes, one part of my(natraj s) mind admired my neighbours for caring so much for sanitation (TMOM68). When the sanitary inspector guzzles down water, Natraj thinks, He was the most parched and dehydrated man I had ever seen in my life (TMOM68). 134