"My Days - A Memoir" by RK Narayan - An Inspiring Autobiography

A memoir is many a-times dry & even dull, but not this one; this autobiography was an amazingly well written, interesting and inspiring narration of Narayan's extraordinary life and incidents. A very simply narrated account, yet so beautiful that one feels one is actually seeing it all through his eyes and can feel the surroundings. R.K.Narayan is a very famous Indian author who has written lots of short-stories and novels. His younger brother is a famous cartoonist.

The story talks about various aspects of life - love, struggle, love for pets, raise a daughter, communicating with souls, soul mates, spiritual encounters and the real beauty is that it is all written in such simplistic manner that you will believe it all and may even wonder how you would have reacted or felt if you were in a similar situation. I am sure most of us would identify with the day-to-day incidents narrated in book.

The beauty of this author's work is the simple narration, which is so free flowing and easy to follow that one gets totally immersed in the book and finds it difficult to put down once you have started reading the account. At one instance, nature is so beautifully described that one feels transported to another world of mystic beauty all around.

While reading the book one does feel moved and pained as Narayan is trying hard to cope with his wife's death. One does feel sorry for a devastated husband. Then finally he finds a psychic way to communicate with his wife's soul which is always nearby him, to help him, guide him and to come to terms with the loss and life after her. This bit was a little hard to believe for me, but then strange things do keep happening in the world.

This autobiography has actually inspired me a lot and makes me want to read all the other novels written by this author inspired by various phases of in his life. Some of them include - "The Bachelor of Arts", "The Dark Room", "The English Teacher" & "The Talkative Man". He has very beautifully given a brief account of what was happening in his personal life when he wrote these novels ad it would be interesting to read the traces or derivations of influence of those incidents in the novel. Another of his famous novel "Guide" was filmed in early 70's and it became a major commercial hit movie, gaining popularity and critical acclaim in that era.