Google has celebrated his birthday today with a doodle and we will be doing the same here at e-Books India. Had he still been alive, R.K. Narayan would have been 108 years old today. Renowned for his stories set in the fictional town of Malgudi in South India, and also as a leading Indian writer in the English language, here are some quotes from the master that is R.K. Narayan and a lesson or two that writers can learn from them:
“We come together only to go apart again. The law of life can’t be avoided. The law comes into operation the moment we detach ourselves from our mother’s womb. All struggle & misery in life is due to our attempt to arrest this law or get away from it or in allowing ourselves to be hurt by it. The fact must be recognized. A profound unmitigated loneliness is the only truth of life. All else is false. The law of life. No sense in battling against it…”
-R.K. Narayan
Your journey as a writer will have its ups and downs. There will be times when your work will be selling like hot cakes and you’ll be on top of the world. Other times, you’ll be struggling to put a sentence together. Never get attached to any such outcome, whether good or bad as one thing is for sure – none will last. Work with what happens in your life, rather than against it.
“I am up against the system, the whole method & approach of a system of education which makes us morons, cultural morons, but efficient clerks for all your business and administrative offices. This education had reduced us to a nation of morons; we were strangers to our own culture and camp followers of another culture, feeding on leavings & garbage…”
-R.K. Narayan
If you want to develop your career as a writer, you may very well come up against all kinds of barriers; a lot of the time other people who will show concern. They’ll be wondering how you can consider doing something, which might not bring in much money. They may try and dissuade you from writing and advise you to get a 9-5 job just like the rest of the world. However, just because the rest of the world is doing something, does in no way make it the best option for you. Do what you know to be the best in your heart.
“Life is about making right things and going on..”
-R.K. Narayan, Malgudi Days
As a writer, a big part of your life is writing. When you’re writing, you are creating. You are sharing your talent with the world through your books and ebooks. For you, this is doing the right thing. Continue with what you do best and keep moving forward.
“This is my child. I planted it. I saw it grow. I loved it. Don’t cut it down…”
-R.K. Narayan, Malgudi Days
Your work is like your baby. When a particular title really has come together and you now have the finished product, your baby is born. As writer you witnessed it all. And once your book or ebook is ready for the world to see, what reaction you will get, one can never be sure. Whatever the reaction, hold your head up high, because you’ve just achieved something that many people would just dream of.
Image credit: CHRIS DRUMM on flickr and reproduced under Creative Commons 2.0[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://writingtipsoasis.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/hv1.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Hiten Vyas is the Founder and Managing Editor of eBooks India. He is also a prolific eBook writer with over 25 titles to his name.[/author_info] [/author]