The book “Vendor of Sweets” is written by famous Indian author R.K Narayan which was first published in 1967. The story of book revolves around a fictional village named Malgudi and it centers around major character named Mr. K.V Jagan who is a vendor of sweet shop in Malgudi town.
The Vendor of Sweets By R.K Narayan
Summary of The Vendor of Sweets By R.K Narayan
The books talk about a relationship of father and Son and what kind of problems people face because of generation gap. The story of novel starts with major character named Jagan who lives in fictional town named Malgudi. Jagan is 55 years old, own a sweet shop in town and he is a great believer of Mahatma Gandhi. When Jagan was young, he was very inspired from Mahatma Gandhi, and quit his education to fight for the freedom of India with Gandhiji. He believes in his religion and always priorities naturopathy in any kind of health issues. He has a dream to write a book in which he will tells world about the benefits of naturopathy for human being.
The story now features new character named Ambika, a wife of Jagan who died a long time ago because of brain tumour while he was doing her treatment with her naturopathy. So now his family is consisting of only two members which includes his son named Mali, who is pursuing his graduation. One day, Mali goes to his father and tells him that he does not like studying because he wants to be a great writer. He decides to go to America to study creative writing as has a great passion for writing and he wants to make his career in writing only. He arranged for passport to go to America while keeping it secret from his father. Jagan doesn’t know that his son Mali is preparing to go in America.
One day, Mali decides to tell his father about his plan to go to America and as he tells, his father accepts it happily and afterwards Mali goes to America. He starts writing letters to his father from America and his father waits desperately for his son’s letter and feel very proud after reading all the letters sent by Mali. As the story moves forwards we learn that after few years Mali comes back to his town Malgudi and his father notices that everything like way of talking and walking, everything changed in Mali as he has adopted western culture and values. He comes in Malgudi with a girl named Grace who is half American and half Korean and it is because girl’s father is from America and mother from Korea. He tells his father that Grace is his wife and his father accept her happily and believes that his son has married to her by Hindu rituals and values. Jagan believes that his son does not give proper attention and care to his wife which she deserve.
Mali tells his father about his plan to start a business in town and told him that soon he will start machine factory which will be back by American company. He ask his father to invest in his business but Jagan is not happy with his business idea because he wants Mali to take care of his family business which is a sweet shop. Jagan feels sad about his son’s plan to start machine factory and he decides take retirement from his family business. One day, Jagan meets a hair dyer, after talking with him, he realized that how boring his life is and how much has to achieve in life despite being old. He remembers his days of youth like how amazing his life was when he was young and when his wife was alive. But now he does only one thing daily and again and again which is to go to shop daily and makes sweets for people of Malgudi.
As the story of book moves forward Jagan learns that his son Mali is arrested by police officers because he was driving car while drinking and he also got divorced with his wife named grace. Jagan goes to his cousin home who is a police officer and told him to keep Mali in prison for few days because he wants him to realize his mistake. The story of novel ends with Jagan who arrange money for Grace to send her back to her country.
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