Mysore: The inaugural day of the international seminar on R.K. Narayan here offered an interesting blend of personal reminiscences and critical evaluation of the iconic figure of Indian-English literature.

The first session of the seminar, organised to mark Narayan's birth centenary by the Sahitya Akademi at the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) on Tuesday, had Shashi Deshpande and Neelam Saran Gour looking at Narayan from their perspectives as writers.

Ms. Deshpande described him as a trailblazer who made it possible for later Indian-English writers to write unselfconsciously. He remarkably resisted the pressure to exoticise India. Another of Narayan's achievements, she said, was to write "without affectation."

On the important question on a writer's relationship with his immediate milieu, Ms. Deshpande said there seemed to be a curious disconnect between the Kannada literary world and Narayan's. The striking similarities in the humanist worldview of Jnanpith Award-winning Kannada writer Masti Venkatesh Iyengar and that of Narayan were not debated in literary circles. On the other hand, Kuvempu, yet another Jnanpith Award recipient from Karnataka who lived in Narayan's own town of Mysore, was starkly different in his sensibility, she said.

Personal memories

A session in which those who personally knew Narayan followed. They shared memories of the man known as much for his subtle irony as for his love of perfectly brewed coffee. Well-known photographer T.S. Satyan shared his six-decade friendship with Narayan.

P. Ranga Rao and Viney Kirpal disputed the remarks of V.S. Naipual who said Narayan's characters were "inviolate to the distress of India" and "quietist." Ms. Kirpal argued that Narayan was, in fact, rebellious and assertive his in narrative form, use of English and characterisation.

Women in his works

The last two speakers of the day, Fakrul Alam and Nancy Batty, focussed on the way Narayan dealt with women in his works. Arguing that Narayan did not sanitise the man-woman relationship, Mr. Alam spoke about Narayan's subtle treatment of sexuality.

Ms. Batty presented a comparative reading of Narayan's The Dark Room and Ms. Deshpande's The Dark Holds No Terror to evaluate the notion of "women's work" in a middle-class milieu.

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