The Bachelor of Arts

Author: R. K. Narayan 

Publisher: Indian Thought Publications 2016

Chandran is the eldest son of an affluent family in a small city in Tamil Nadu. At the beginning of the story he was an undergraduate of a private university headed by a British administrator. His almost carefree life involves him getting involved in campus societies enjoying his life for the first six months of the academic year and studying long hours in the remaining six months. While his less fortunate friends left searching for jobs, Chandran remained at his parents house thinking of going to England for higher education. All this changed when he saw a girl at the river. let me emphasize, he did not meet a girl; he saw a girl.

Once again Narayan has woven a tale of the 1930s Tamil society, including its interesting customs, and the religious curiosities. Needless to say you feel good about their society no matter how controversial some of their customs are.

Something that is common to this society and the Sri Lankan society is the need for connections to get things done through bureaucracies. Gunadasa Amerasekere has written about this custom in his novels. This is still true in the current Sri Lanken society. For example, I needed to get something done through a government bureaucracy and I estimated it could take a month. However, after three weeks of trying without using connections, I was getting nowhere. Reluctantly, I used a connection and managed to get it done in two days. I am sure you can get things done through connections in Western countries as well, however, you do not have to wait three weeks for something, which can be done in only two days.