Books: Hindu Businessman

THE FINANCIAL EXPERT (I 78 pp.)—R. K. Narayan — Michigan State College Press ($3).

India has fascinated many Western writers, but whether they celebrated the white man's burden, like Kipling, or deplored the excesses of imperialism, like E. M. Forster, they were usually outsiders observing from a distance. In recent years, the Indians have been raising novelists of their own, such as G. V. (for Govindas Vishnoodas) Desani, author of the high-comic All About H. Hatterr (TIME, June 18, 1951). Now comes R. K. (for Rasi-puram Krishnaswami) Narayan, a gently satirical fellow and a writer of substance. At 45, Narayan has published half a dozen novels and scores of stories, forming a miniature comedie humaine of modern India.

The Financial Expert traces the rise & fall of Margayya, a proud, overimaginative moneylender who keeps bank each day under a banyan tree. Margayya makes a good living from small loans, but he is not satisfied; he dreams of real wealth. The local priest advises Margayya to woo the gods with a special rite: mix the ashes of a red lotus with milk drawn from a smoke-colored cow. Sure enough, not long after, Margayya meets Dr. Pal, a sociologist who has written a book called Bed-Life, or the Science of Marital Happiness. The first chapters make Margayya blush, but they also make him want to read on. Then the idea hits him: he publishes Dr. Pal's manuscript under the discreet title, Domestic Harmony.

Sales are sensational; Margayya is rich, but still he does not rest content. With his new wealth, he goes into banking on a big scale, offering depositors 20% on their money. The town comes knocking, thrusting its money into his hands.

Now Margayya is vastly rich: the money lies stacked in piles throughout his house. He becomes a specialist on the subject of interest on capital, which seems to him "the greatest wonder of creation, [combining] the mystery of birth and multiplication." All goes well, except that his only son, once a charming little fellow, now becomes sullen and spoiled. Egged on by the worthless Dr. Pal, the boy tries to get more & more money from Margayya; when Margayya resists, Dr. Pal spreads a rumor that Margayya is a fraud. In a matter of hours, the bank is bankrupt.

But Margayya still keeps his bounce. When he .cannot persuade his son to take up the old spot under the banyan tree, he decides to go back to the tree himself and start all over again.

Novelist Narayan tells his story with an abundance of good nature. Let the philosophers of history ponder the formal gravities of the meeting of East and West, he seems to be saying. For a man with a novelist's eye, there is also plenty of warmhearted comedy in the situation.