Summary-rk Narayan - The Financial Expert 5u32m

Short Summary of “Financial Expert” by R. K. Narayan by Pragati Ghosh

Narayan’s The Financial Expert (1952), is his masterpiece. William Walsh hails Margayya, the hero of the novel as “probably Narayan’s greatest single comic creation.” It is an extremely well constructed novel, in five parts corresponding to the five Acts of an Elizabethan drama. The Financial Expert tells the story of the rise and fall of Margayya, the financial expert. The protagonist of the novel, Margayya begins his career as petty money-lender doing his business under the Bunyan tree, in front of the Central Co-operative Land Mortgage Bank in Malgudi. He helps the shareholders of the bank to borrow money at a small interest and lends it to the needy at a higher interest. In the process, he makes money for himself. The Secretary of the Bank and Arul Doss, the peon, seize from his box the loan application forms he has managed to get from the Bank through its shareholders; they treat him with contempt, and threaten to proceed against him. This sets the path of improving his position. Balu, his spoilt-child throws his book, containing all the entries of his transactions with his clients into the gutter, and it becomes impossible for Margayya to resume his old practice. He shows his horoscope to an astrologer and is assured that good times will come for him if he offers puja to Lakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth. The puja is done for forty days, with ash from a red lotus and ghee made of milk from a grey cow. Margayya goes through the puja with all rigour and at the end of it is full of a prosperous career. Dr. Pal, who sells him the manuscript of a book on Bed Life, for whatever ready cash Margayya’s purse contains, assures him that the book named Domestic Harmony will sell in tens of thousands if only he can find a publisher. Madan Lal, “a man from the North”, reads the manuscript and agrees to publish it on a fifty-fifty partnership basis. The book is at once popular and sells like hot cakes and Margayya hits a fortune. Margayya is again ruined through his son Balu. He had itted him in school in great style, getting the blessing of his brother and sister-in-law next door. His wealth had made him become the Secretary of the School Managing Committee. This had armed him with enough power over the Heaster and the School Staff. He had engaged a private tutor for his son and instructed him to thrash the boy whenever necessary. But Balu was not good in his studies. He could not clear his S.S.L.C. He tried to persuade him to take the examination for he second time. The result was that Balu seized the School Leaving

Certificate Book, tore it into for quarters and threw them into the gutter the same gutter which closed its dark waters over Margayya’s red book, carried away the School Leaving Certificate Book. Then Balu ran away from home. A few days later there was a letter from Madras telling Margayya that his son was dead. The brother’s family immediately comes to his help, though Margayya felt that he could do without their help and wondered if that would change the existing relationship between them. He left for Madras, discovered through the good offices of a fellow traveller a police inspector in plain clothes that his son was not really dead, traced the boy and brought him home. He wanted to marry him to a girl named Brinda, the daughter of the owner of a tea estate in Mempi Hills. When a pundit, after an honest study, declared that the horoscopes of Balu and Brinda did not match, he was curtly dismissed with a fee of one rupee. Another astrologer, whom Dr. Pal found, gave it in writing that the two horoscope matched perfectly and was paid Rs. 75 for his pains. “Money can dictate the very stars in their course.” Balu and his wife were helped to set up an establishment of their own in Lawley Extension. Margayya, wishing to draw Dr. Pal away from his son, sought his help in attracting deposits from Black Marketers on the promise of an interest of 29%. If he got Rs. 20,000 deposit each day and paid Rs. 15, 000 in interest, he had still Rs. 5000 a day left in his hands as his own. Margayya became rich. It was now necessary for him to own a car. Every nook and corner of his house was stuffed with sacks full of currency notes. He was on the right side of the police, contributed to the War Fund when driven to do so, and worked day and night with his s and money bags, though his wife was unhappy at his straining himself so much. One day Margayya visited his son in Lawley Extension. He found Brinda and her child. The girl could not hold back her tears, while narrating Balu’s nocturnal activities. When Margayya got out of the house, he found a car halting in front of it. Out of which emerged Balu. His companions were Dr. Pal and a couple of women in the town. The enraged Margayya pulled Dr. Pal out of the car, beat him and dismissed the two women with contempt. The next day Dr. Pal with a bandaged face whispered to all and sundry that things were not going well with Margayya’s concerns. Hundreds of people swarmed Margayya and pressed him to return their deposits forthwith. All the accumulated wealth was disbursed. Still hundreds of people could not be satisfied. The run on the Bank led to Maragayya’s filing an insolvency petition. And thus like a house of cards the wealth that Margayya had accumulated was blown away. He advised his son to take

his place under the Banyan tree with the old box. When Balu hesitated to do that for fear of what people would say about it, Margayya offered to do so himself. The theme of the novel is lust for money. But Margayya is no monster of greed and wickedness. In his depiction of Margayya, Narayan has succeeded in humanizing him and showing that despite his lust for money, he is a human being like us. K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar observes, The Financial Expert is, in its own sphere, quite an achievement. It is clearly and even sparklingly written, it is mildly satirical, and it is unexcitingly interesting and entertaining. Perhaps the main defects of the novel is that its chief characters are little better than caricatures; but so are the ‘good companions’ in The Pickwick Papers, and so are certain Wellsian characters like the hero of Tono Bungay and w Chitterlow of Kipps, who persist in our imagination.

The Financial Expert’,( TFE), transports the reader back to Malgudi, a fictious world of R K Narayan’s imagination. The protagonist here is Margaya, a complex and entrancing character; a genius of financial mathematics. Sitting under the shadow of Banyan tree opposite to Village’s Corporation Bank, Margaya conducts his daily business which involves helping the fellow villagers with financial transactions that mostly deal with extraction of loan from the bank. He keeps track of the of each of his client and earns his living by charging on the advice provided as well as the interest on the amount that he, at times, loaned them. . ’ If the purpose of the co-operative movement was the promotion of thrift and the elimination of middleman, those two were just the objects that were defeated here under the banyan tree. ” . On one occasion, when Bank Manager cautions Margaya to stop his activities and warns him of police action if he ever finds him sitting under the Banyan tree again. Margaya feels insulted and swears to become a rich man like the Manager (“ He has the right because he has more money, authority, dress, looks – above all, more money. Its money which gives people all this. Money alone is important in this world. Everything else will come to us naturally if we have money in our purse. ”). But being a man of limited resources Margaya turns to Gods for help. Village priest helps him out with ways and rituals to make Goddess Lakshmi happy and obtain her blessings. But it’s only after a series of entertaining events that Margaya succeeds in getting hold of something that could help him get rich; and once it starts, in time and along with some tactful and smart decisions and tricks, Margaya becomes a Financial Wizard, most known and most sought after in whole of the Malgudi. .

That’s one aspect of the story that portrays Margaya as a smart, knowledgeable but imive man who knows how to get the things done and how to make the money grow with time. It’s Margaya, as father, that shows the reader a different side of his character. Margaya as father is as common a man as it could be. Balu, his spoilt son, right from the childhood is a pain in the a$$ for Margaya. He throws Margaya’s book into the gutter and ends his carrier as the adviser of Village folks for their Bank Transactions. During school years he fails to clear the 10th class exams repeatedly, even after application of all tactful ways by Margaya, and breaks Margaya’s dream of making Balu a big and respectful man. He runs away from home leading to lots of misery for his parents and towards the end forms the major reason for Margaya’s downfall. . These two facets of Margaya’s character and life are brilliantly inter-woven by RKN.Through Margaya, RKN covers, basically, the tale of most financial experts of the world; masters at making money but ignorant of how to handle their families . . TFE starts on a very high note and manages to grab hold of a reader’s attention right from the first page with introduction of Margaya and curious reason behind his name. It goes at the same pace for next 100 pages as reader follows Margaya’s life, his business, his amusing conversations with villagers and his wife, his episodes with Balu, his losing business and getting on the path of puja-paath and rituals to become a rich man; his meeting Dr. Pal and getting hold of a book that changes his life completely. . The sub-plots of Dr. Pal drag the story a bit from the main plot, infact that’s the case with most of the characters here; the moment a new character is introduced and attention is taken away from Margaya, you miss him. It’s a good thing that there are hardly 2 or 3 such cases. Towards the end, TFE again succeeds in asserting a strong hold on the reader as the plot shifts back to Margaya, the financial wizard. Last 50 or so pages mark the epitome the book. Written so impact fully that a reader like all the characters of the story wonders how Margaya’s managing his business by giving out 20% interest on the money to his clients. He starts to accrue a huge sum of money and his whole house turns out to be insufficient to store it. But then comes the fall as he tries to get together his family which in turn leads to incidents that brings in his financial collapse. . Written in trademark RKN style, TFE’s main ingredient is the character of Margaya . Although written from a 3rds person’s point of view, everything is portrayed in context of this character. And through it all, RKN has succeeded in putting it forward with lots of hidden humor and irony. TFE serves you for, whatever expectations you read it with. If its humor you are looking for, well, you get a bucketful of it blended with lots of hidden irony and witty dialogues. At the same time it’s a serious story of a man, which could beany man, who wants to get rich and provide his family with all the stuff of the world, but in the process he forgets where to stop; he keeps accumulating money when its his love, care and attention that the family actually needs and wish for. .

“ Money is the greatest factor in life and is most ill-used. People don’t know how to tend it, how to manure it, how to water it, how to make it grow, and when to pluck its flowers and when to pluck its fruits. What most people now do is to try and eat the plant itself. ” . One thing that we could learn from TFE is that financial wizards don’t fall from the sky, (infact it could be with anything you want to posses), you just have to be money minded and work hard and need to put all your energy towards one goal i.e. to become rich. They say. ‘It’s your desires that decide the course of your life’. So, if you really want money and is ready to do anything for it, you will surely get it sooner or later; But beware of the cost that you might have to pay for it. Nothing comes free, my friend. . Few more wonderful extracts are in the comment section for better idea of writing style and feel of ’The Financial Expert’. . ++++++++++++++++ . PYAR HUMEIN PHIR MILAAEGA....