Swami and Friends - Tapa blanda

Ten-year-old Swaminthan is living in exciting times. The sleeping giant of India is beginning to stir to the swelling reverberations which herald the great struggle for independence. But it's all rather confusing for the boy. For like his family and friends, Swami has been immutably moulded by his British rulers - and though he might happily demonstrate against them, he wouldn't dream of missing cricket practice...

R. K. Narayan's writing spanned the greatest period of change in modern Indian history, from the days of the Raj with Swami and Friends (1935), The Bachelor of Arts (1937) and The English Teacher (1945), to recent years of political unrest - The Painter of Signs (1976), A Tiger for Malgudi (1983), and Talkative Man (1987). He has published numerous collections of short stories, including Malgudi Days (1982) and Under The Banyan Tree (1985), and several works of non-fiction. His most recent work is The Grandmother's Tale: Three Novellas (1993). R.K. Narayan died in 2001.