A Horse and Two Goats

-R.K Narayan

Name:Yuvan Shashivernam
Class:IX B
School:Chrysalis High
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to express my special thanks of
gratitude to my teacher, Mr.Sankhasubhra
Banerjee as well as our principal Mrs.Sukanya
Maity who gave me the golden opportunity to
do this wonderful project on the topic (Theatre
during the Elizabethan Age), which also
helped me in doing a lot of Research and I
came to know about so many new things I am
really thankful to them.
Secondly I would also like to thank my parents
and friends who helped me a lot in finalizing
this project within the limited time frame.
 Index

Sr.no Topic Pg.no

1. Life, works and 4-8
achievements of RK
Narayan
2. Difference in Indian 9-12
and American
cultures
3. The use of Indian 13-15
mythology in the
above mentioned
story
4. The influence of 16-17
American culture on
the modern Indian
youth
5. The impact of 18-20
Americanization on
every aspect of the
lives of present day
Indians, including
their diction
6. Conclusion 21-22
7. Bibliography 23
 Life, works and achievements of RK
Narayan

Childhood & Early life

R. K. Narayan was born in Chennai, Indian in 1906 in a
working class south Indian family. His father was a
school headmaster and because his father had to be
frequently transferred for his job, Narayan spent most of
his childhood in the loving care of his grandmother,
Parvati.
It was his grandmother who taught him arithmetic,
mythology and Sanskrit. He also attended many
different schools in Chennai like, Lutheran Mission
School, Christian College High School, etc. He was
interested in English literature since he was very young.
His reading habit further developed when he moved to
Mysore with his family and there his father’s schools
library offered him gems of writing from authors like
Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Wodehouse, etc.
In 1926, he passed the university examination and
joined Maharaja College of Mysore. After completing his
graduation, Narayan took a job as a school teacher in a
local school. Soon after, he realized that he could only
be happy in writing fiction, which is why he decided to
stay at home and write.

Career
Narayan’s decision of staying at home and writing was
supported in every way by his family and in 1930, he
wrote his first novel called ‘Swami and Friends’ which
was rejected by a lot of publishers. But this book was
important in the sense that it was with this that he
created the fictional town of Malgudi.
After getting married in 1933, Narayan became a
reporter for a newspaper called ‘The Justice’ and in the
meantime, he sent the manuscript of ‘Swami and
Friends’ to his friend at Oxford who in turn showed it to
Graham Greene. Greene got the book published.
His second novel, ‘The Bachelors of Arts’, was
published in 1937,. It was based on his experiences at
college. This book was again published by Graham
Greene who by now started counseling Narayan on how
to write and what to write about to target the English
speaking audience.
In 1938, Narayan wrote his third novel called ‘The Dark
Room’ dealt with the subject of emotional abuse within a
marriage and it was warmly received, both by readers
and critics. The same year his father expired and he had
to accept regular commission by the government.
In 1939, his wife’s unfortunate demise left Narayan
depressed and disgruntled. But he continued to write
and came out with his fourth book called ‘The English
Teacher’ which was more autobiographical than any of
his prior novels.
After this, Narayan authored books like, ‘Mr. Sampath’
(1949), ‘The Financial Expert’ (1951) and ‘Waiting for
the Mahatma (1955)’, etc.
He wrote ‘The Guide’ in 1956 while he was touring
United States. It earned him the Sahitya Akademi
Award.
In 1961, he wrote his next novel called ‘The Man-Eater
of Malgudi’. After finishing this book, he travelled to the
United States and Australia. He also gave lectures on
Indian literature in Sydney and Melbourne. With his
growing success, he also started writing columns for
The Hindu and The Atlantic.
His first mythological work ‘Gods, Demons and Others’,
a collection of short stories was published in 1964. His
book was illustrated by his younger brother R. K.
Laxman, who was a famous cartoonist.
In 1967, he came up with his next novel titled ‘The
Vendor of Sweets’. Later, that year Narayan travelled to
England, where he received the first of his honorary
doctorates from the University of Leeds.
Within next few years he started translating Kamba
Ramayanam to English—a promise he made to his
dying uncle once.
Narayan was asked by the government of Karnataka to
write a book to promote tourism which he republished in
1980 with the title of ‘The Emerald Route’. In the same
year he was named as the honorary member of the
American Academy of Arts and Letters.
In 1980, Narayan was chosen as the member of Rajya
Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament and
throughout his 6 years term he focused on the education
system and how little children suffer in it.
During the 1980s Narayan wrote prolifically. His works
during this peiod include: 'Malgudi Days' (1982), 'Under
the Banyan Tree and Other Stories', ‘A Tiger for
Malgudi’ (1983), ‘Talkative Man’ (1986) and 'A Writer's
Nightmare' (1987).
In 1990s, his published works include: ‘The World of
Nagaraj (1990)’, ‘Grandmother’s Tale (1992)’, ‘The
Grandmother’s Tale and Other Stories (1994)’, etc.
Major Works
R.K. Narayan made India accessible to the outside
world through his literature. He will be remembered for
the invention of Malgudi, a semi-urban fictional town in
southern India where most of his stories were set.

Awards & Achievements

Narayan won numerous accolades for his literary works.
These include: Sahitya Akademi Award (1958), Padma
Bhushan (1964), AC Benson Medal by the British Royal
Society of Literature (1980), and Padma Vibhushan
(2001).
Personal Life & Legacy
In 1933, Narayan met his future wife Rajam, a 15 year
old girl, and fell deeply in love with her. They managed
to get married despite many astrological and financial
hurdles.
Rajam died of typhoid in 1939 and left a three year old
daughter for Narayan to take care of. Her death caused
a great shock in his life and he was left depressed and
uprooted for a long period of time. He never remarried in
his life.
Narayan died in 2001 at the age of 94. He was planning
on writing his next novel, a story on a grandfather, just
before he expired.
 Difference in Indian and American
cultures

Both the Indian and the American cultures are very proud
and rich heritages that are seemingly poles apart but are
similar in some ways. The two countries constantly observe
and gauge each other. They also inadvertently try to imitate
each other and in that process we can spot the differences
between the two unique cultures. Here are few of the pop-
out differences, some quirky ones, and a few funny ones
In the last few decades the Indian and the American cultures
have undergone unprecedented changes that have led to
westernization of Indian culture as well as the Americans
developing keen interest in practicing yoga and developing a
taste for Indian cuisine.
• There is a lot of importance given to society in the
Indian culture. An individual’s actions have an impact on
the society’s perception of that individual. Attending a
school, interacting with people in a particular manner,
wearing a certain outfit, and even the person one
chooses to marry decides the type of individual you are.
The American culture emphasizes on the individual instead of
trying to appease the society. An individual concentrates on
his own aims and goals instead of worrying about the society.
• Family is considered the next important
priority. Children are molded in a particular way from a
 very early age and the significance of family is impressed
upon them. They are guided on the part they will have
to play when they grow up.
American children are brought up to be independent with
unique views and opinions. Though family values are
important, the individual is expected to take responsibility
for his/her decisions.
• Marriages are arranged by families rather than being
decided by the bride and the groom. In rural India,
arranged marriages are still the order of the day.
Families decide who their son or daughter should marry
and going against this norm spells trouble. This concept
is gradually being supplanted by marriages of choice in
urban India.
Families play no part in selecting a partner for the son or
daughter.

Families play no part in selecting a partner for the son or

daughter.
• Joint families are still encouraged in rural India, where
parents, their son, his wife and children, grandchildren –
all of them live in the same house. In urban India, the
idea of nuclear families is more popular and prevalent.
The concept of joint family does not exist in the USA. Kids are
considered old enough to support themselves when they
turn 18. They move out of their parents’ and start on part
time employment even as they attend college.
 • Dress code is considered important, especially for
women. Clothing that is deemed appropriate and
respectable for women include sari, Salwar kameez,
chudidar, and long skirts. Revealing and tight-fitting
clothes are frowned upon, particularly in rural India. In
recent times, however, this moral policing has been
challenged by many women’s organizations and women
in cities and larger towns do not hesitate to dress as
they please.
American woman do not have any restrictions on how they
should dress though the unwritten rule is to dress
appropriately as the occasion demands. There are always
formal and informal dress codes to adhere to.

Both countries have cuisines that have been influenced by a

lot by other countries. America is a land of immigrants and
they all have blended their native flavors to create the
American cuisine as it is known now.
India was invaded by the Moghuls, Asiatic, and
the Europeans, followed by the British. Naturally, they all
have left a hint of their tastes on Indian flavors and the end
result is a lip-smacking array of delicious dishes
An estimated 40% of Indians are vegetarian, due to cultural
and economic reasons. So, every state in India has its own
vegetarian specialty dishes depending on local produce and
other prevalent traditions. The same vegetable curry (yes,
curry is not just for chicken!) can be made differently in
different parts of India. The spices and oil used will result in a
subtle change of flavor that is also distinctive!
For example, the southern state of Kerala has coconut trees
in abundance. Consequently, there is a huge variety of
snacks, starters, main course, and desserts using coconut as a
base ingredient. Coconut oil is used for cooking and frying
purposes. Maharashtra uses peanut oil, Tamil Nadu sticks to
Sesame oil, and the eastern states prefer to use mustard
oil for cooking vegetables. The cooking method and a dash of
spices make all the difference.
American vegetarian food is not without variety but it
doesn’t have as many spices as the Indian ones do. Since the
majority of population eat meat, you have to specifically
mention that you want a vegetarian or vegan option with no
meat. Corn bread, potato salad, apple pie, and pumpkin pie
are among the American dishes that are vegetarian.
The use of Indian mythology in the above
mentioned story
The most important symbol in the story is the horse and
warrior statue on whose pedestal Muni enjoys sitting
and watching the highway. The warrior statue
represents Kalki, the final avatar of the Hindu god
Vishnu, who will arrive at the end of the Kali Yuga (or
the darkest age of humanity) as a messiah to save the
virtuous and destroy the hopelessly benighted world and
its ignorant, amoral people. The horse statue at Kalki’s
side alludes to traditional religious iconography of Kalki,
in which he is shown riding a white steed and
brandishing a flaming sword. In the story, the statue
represents a facet of Indian culture that deals with Hindu
spirituality and storytelling in which the notion of cyclical
time is essential. The myth of Kalki himself and much of
Hindu mythology, in fact, relies on the notion of cyclical
time; in the Kalki myth, the messiah must end the Kali
Yuga and return the world to the first age, Satya Yuga
(the age of truth), thereby restarting the cycle of time. In
fact, the statue’s appearance even hints at this cyclical
conception of time in that the horse’s tail appears as a
loop. These qualities align the statue with Muni himself,
who also represents these facets of Indian culture.
The fact that the foreigner believes he can purchase the
statue, and his condescending assumption that Muni is
merely a “peddler” desperate to sell the statue to a
wealthy Westerner, signifies the foreigner’s alignment
with American neocolonialism, materialism and
conceptions of linear time in which time is a valuable,
finite resource. The statue, which is an invaluable
artifact that has enormous historical, cultural and
sentimental significance, is effectively stripped of these
non-monetary forms of value when the foreigner
believes he is purchasing the statue for 100 rupees,
pries it off its pedestal and packs it into his station
wagon. Despite its significance, the foreigner sees the
horse statue as merely a “pretty object” he will show off
to his friends at cocktail parties. At the end of the story,
the foreigner drives off with the statue, still unaware of
its multifaceted significance, regardless of Muni’s
attempt to narrate its mythology to him. The fact that the
foreigner believes that he can purchase the statue
(when, in fact, he is stealing it) demonstrates that,
despite traveling half a world away to expose himself to
other civilizations, he is unable to appreciate the beauty
and nuance of Indian culture because he sees it through
the narrow lens of his own cultural milieu in which
money talks, time is in short supply and one’s
acquisition of material objects is the primary concern.
The foreigner’s ignorance, selfishness and materialism
seem to suggest the statue’s reference to the darkness
of the Kali Yuga and the need for Kalki, the messiah, to
return the world to the Satya Yuga. Another detail that
relates to the degradation of the Kali Yuga are the
“jewels” on the chest of the warrior, which the narrator
describes as “faded blobs of mud” but which Muni
remembers as once “shining like the nine gems” of
Hindu astrology, which correspond with the nine planets.
The statue’s gradual degradation (and the degradation
of the jewels) parallels the deterioration of the world as it
sinks further and further into the abyss of the Kali Yuga.
The influence of American culture on the
modern Indian youth
“Today's Indian youth have more economic
opportunities than my generation, and certainly previous
generations. They have access to global communication
tools like the internet and aspire to compete with the
finest young minds around the world. While we provide
our youth with international standards of education and
economic opportunities, in their rush to mimic the West,
India's youth are rapidly becoming "Americanized".
-Milind Deora, Times of India Dec 27, 2011

The above extract is taken from an article in Times of

India written by Mr. Milind Deora, who critiques the
Indian youth of “mimicking the Western culture and
hence we are “Americanised” in this process. Let’s look
at history, India was a colonised country, Western
education and ethics were brought to us, except in the
modern world we have instruments that enables this
subtle and rigorous process of Deterritorialization. Our
economy was liberalised by the result of the 1991
Economic Policies, naturally by which International
MNCs, Fast Food Companies, High-end Fashion
Industries were brought into India. Due to these policies,
many Indian citizens received multiple economic
employment opportunities, increasing the GDP
parallelly. As employment opportunities grew rapidly, the
standard of living improved enabling high purchasing
power for the citizens of India. Thereby enabling the
consumer culture, that which is similar to the western
counterparts. Eventually, youngsters willingly or
unwillingly were exposed to the so called “Western
Culture” as we call it. And as natural it is, we learn what
we see. India as such is a multicultural society, where
we celebrate all cultures that is prevalent in our territory.
The youth of India are more aware than our previous
generations and ancestors, where we got the glimpse of
both worlds and know the pros & cons that come along
with it. With that being said, the western culture’s
influence on Indian youth is parallel to the influence of
Globalisation, which is nothing but a natural process of
economic and cultural evolution, thereby enabling the
Information age where information flows faster each sec
with the constant improvements in Communication &
Technology. The negative impact of the “American
Culture” on the Indian youth is much less than the
influence of our own people on you us, where our
culture teaches it’s youth corruption, nepotism,
patriarchy and the list goes on.
 The impact of Americanization on
every aspect of the lives of present
day Indians, including their diction

The tangible signs included an increase in the

availability of American brands; a noticeable surge in the
population of American businessmen (and their booming
voices) in the corridors of five-star hotels; and, also,
striking use of American idiom and American accents. In
outsourcing companies across the country, Indians were
being taught to speak more slowly and stretch their O’s.
But the intangible evidence of Americanization was even
more remarkable. Something had changed in the very
spirit of the country. Now it is infused with an energy, a
can-do ambition and an entrepreneurial spirit that can
only be described as distinctly American. In surveys of
global opinion, Indians consistently rank as among the
most optimistic people in the world. Bookstores are
stacked with titles like “India Arriving,” “India Booms”
and “The Indian Renaissance.” The Pew Global
Attitudes Project, which measures opinions across major
countries, regularly finds that Indians admire values and
attributes typically thought of as American: free-market
capitalism, globalization, even multinational companies.
Substantial majorities associate Americans with values
like hard work and inventiveness, and even during the
Iraq war, India’s views of America remained decidedly
positive.
The villages have undeniably grown more prosperous,
but they are also more troubled. Abandoned fields and
fallow plantations are indications of a looming
agricultural and environmental crisis. Ancient social
structures are collapsing under the weight of new
money. Bonds of caste and religion and family have
frayed; the panchayats, village assemblies made up of
elders, have lost their traditional authority. Often,
lawlessness and violence step into the vacuum left
behind.

Against rapid development, against the brutality of

modernity — with increasing frequency. India’s
Americanization has in so many ways been a wonderful
thing. It has lifted millions from poverty, and, by seeding
ideas of meritocracy and individual attainment into the
national imagination, it has begun the process of
dismantling an old and often repressive order. The
American promise of renewal and reinvention is deeply
seductive — but, it is also profoundly menacing.

The fast-food industry, which has to a large extent been

pioneered by America and driven by its capitalist
system, has been a curse for the world. The fast-food
culture meets the American need for “more”, and is
inexpensive, tasty and packed with a lot of calories. It is
also easily available, and is cost and time effective,
thereby making it appealing. Heavy advertising makes it
interesting and intriguing, and it is convenient too, as
some sort of food chain is always found at a stop sign.
Now, one need not even get out of one’s car, as one
can just order it by driving through. Junk food is
therefore also closely related to the American ideal of
comfort and a fast-paced life. McDonald’s is the torch-
bearer of fast food, and revolutionized the concept.
Globalization brought McDonald’s to foreign shores,
thereby influencing foreign diets. In India itself they have
approximately 300 outlets, attracting a huge number of
customers daily. McDonald’s has smartly adapted to the
cultural food habits of the host country. The Indian
McDonald’s has McAloo Tikki which is made especially
for the Indian outlets and is nowhere close to the original
McDonald’s cheeseburger. There is a serious
McDonaldization of the world economies, where having
a McDonald’s outlet is a sign of development.
McDonald’s has changed the world food scene, getting
fast food into the limelight and pushing it as a dietary
variant of the foreign country.
The Americanization of food has reached a point where
it influences everything we eat. From putting cheese in
dosas and pani puris to having a McDonald’s outlet in
every nook and corner, the American dominance on the
cultural aspects of life is undeniable. Indians too have
started believing in the culture of excess, with
consumerism being encouraged. The Americanization of
food is encouraged, from the excess of Nutella and
chocolate smeared on a waffle and pancake, to the
pizzas with extra cheese easily delivered. Indian
businesses and restaurants have started making
Americanized food, not realising that the
Americanization of food is just another facet of American
supremacy.
 Conclusion
R.k Narayan is regarded as one of the greatest of Indian
writings in English. He is the most artistic of the Indian
writers, his sole aim being to give aesthetic satisfaction
and not to use his art as a medium of propaganda or to
serve some social purpose. The novelist was never a
good student. He failed in both high school and
intermediate examination. He could get his degree only
when he was twenty-four years old. These failures at
school and college have made him shy, reserved and
diffident, an introvert and not an extrovert.
R.K Narayan is a novelist who has no axe to grind. He
is the rare example of a pure artist. One who writes for
the sake of art and not out of any ulterior motives? That
is why his popularity has been worldwide and lasting.
His works have been translated into a number of
languages of the world, and his reputation as an artist
has been steadily rising.
His deliberate detachment from the social and political
unrest of the time distinguishes him from his
contemporary novelist. Without making bones he
asserts:
“Don’t forgot I am only a fiction writer and not a historian
philosopher or social scientist. My habit is to take things
as
as they are. Too much analyses proves a handicap to
my
Understanding.It is essential that I should maintain my
 Objective”.
And More,
“One should not revive history blindly and stir up the
bitterness of other days. It serves no purpose. Let us
Forget the past and see what we may do now”.
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essay.php

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american-and-indian-
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mericans%20are%20individual%20oriented.

6. https://www.litcharts.com/lit/a-horse-and-two-goats/symbols/the-kalki-
statue

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became-america.html

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9. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/edit-page/Indiaamp39s-youth-
rapidly-becoming-
amp39Americanizedamp39/articleshow/11267766.cms

10. https://asiasociety.org/education/indian-society-and-ways-living

11. https://www.quora.com/Americanization-Why-does-modern-India-
seem-to-idealize-and-drift-towards-an-American-culture

12. https://www.indianfolk.com/americanization-food-edited/