Karnataka   

This reminds us of a fascinating past

— Photo: M.A. Sriram

R.K. Narayan’s house at Yadavgiri in Mysore.

A stately mansion located diagonally opposite Dasaprakash Paradise Hotel in Mysore’s posh Yadavgiri locality has for long evoked much curiosity and fascination among a certain category of people. For, in this white-washed two-storeyed house lived R.K. Narayan, the celebrated writer who created the make-believe town of Malgudi that reflected the social milieu of Mysore of a bygone era. Almost seven years after his death at 94, the empty house continues to draw his admirers from within Mysore and from far off places who come here for a glimpse of the gifted writer’s house. They are curious to know where he lived and for clues that may suggest what his sources of inspiration and creativity could have been. Despite the silence that pervades the house and its environs, the caretakers have ensured that the grass and other vegetation in the large compound are trimmed. Visitors who wish to enter the house are greeted by a security guard posted outside the gate of the mansion. The house is now in the custody of the late writer’s grand-daughter who stays in Coimbatore, says the guard. A landmark in its own right, there have been appeals from the late Narayan’s fans for converting the house into a library, reading room, museum, conference hall, etc., to perpetuate the memory of the writer. This suggestion was made during the writer’s birth centenary in 2006 by a group of eminent citizens, including the historian Ramachandra Guha, that met the then Governor T.N. Chaturvedi seeking civic recognition to Narayan. Writer Sunaad Raghuram, who was also part of the delegation, felt that the gifted writer’s house “now tells a sad story”. “It is time that something is done to perpetuate the memory of the writer,” the writer said. The University of Mysore, which wanted to set up a “Creative Centre on R.K. Narayan Studies” in the house and establish a museum during the writer’s birth centenary, had to abandon the proposal. “We had the university’s Department of English take up the project. But his family was not exactly receptive to the idea,” the former vice-chancellor of the university J. Shashidhar Prasad said.

Laiqh A. Khan in Mysore

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