Narayan’s The Financial Expert (1952), is

his masterpiece. William Walsh hails

Margayya, the hero of the novel as
“probably Narayan’s greatest single
comic creation.” It is an extremely
wellconstructed novel, in five parts
corresponding to the five Acts of an
Elizabethan drama. TheFinancial Expert
tells the story of the rise and fall of
Margayya, the financial expert.The
protagonist of the novel, Margayya
begins his career as petty money-lender
doing hisbusiness under the Bunyan tree,
in front of the Central Co-operative Land
Mortgage Bank in Malgudi. He helps the
shareholders of the bank to borrow
money at a small interest and lends itto
the needy at a higher interest. In the
process, he makes money for himself.The
Secretary of the Bank and Arul Doss, the
peon, seize from his box the loan
application forms he has managed to get
from the Bank through its shareholders;
they treat him with contempt,and
threaten to proceed against him. This
sets the path of improving his
position.Balu, his spoilt-child throws his
account book, containing all the entries
of his transactions withhis clients into
the gutter, and it becomes impossible for
Margayya to resume his old practice.
Heshows his horoscope to an astrologer
and is assured that good times will come
for him if heoffers puja to Lakshmi, the
Goddess of Wealth. The puja is done for
forty days, with ash from ared lotus and
ghee made of milk from a grey cow.
Margayya goes through the puja with all
rigour and at the end of it is full of a
prosperous career.Dr. Pal, who sells him
the manuscript of a book on Bed Life, for
whatever ready cash Margayya’s purse
contains, assures him that the book
named Domestic Harmony will sell in
tens ofthousands if only he can find a
publisher. Madan Lal, “a man from the
North”, reads themanuscript and agrees
to publish it on a fifty-fifty partnership
basis. The book is at once popularand
sells like hot cakes and Margayya hits a
fortune.Margayya is again ruined
through his son Balu. He had admitted
him in school in great style,getting the
blessing of his brother and sister-in-law
next door. His wealth had made him
becomethe Secretary of the School
Managing Committee. This had armed
him with enough power overthe
Headmaster and the School Staff. He had
engaged a private tutor for his son and
instructedhim to thrash the boy
whenever necessary.But Balu was not
good in his studies. He could not clear his
S.S.L.C. He tried to persuade him totake
the examination for he second time. The
result was that Balu seized the School
Leaving

Certificate Book, tore it into for quarters

and threw them into the gutter the same
gutter whichclosed its dark waters over
Margayya’s red account book, carried
away the School Leaving Certificate
Book. Then Balu ran away from home. A
few days later there was a letter from
Madras telling Margayya that his son was
dead. Thebrother’s family immediately
comes to his help, though Margayya felt
that he could do withouttheir help and
wondered if that would change the
existing relationship between them. He
left forMadras, discovered through the
good offices of a fellow traveller a police
inspector in plainclothes that his son was
not really dead, traced the boy and
brought him home.He wanted to marry
him to a girl named Brinda, the daughter
of the owner of a tea estate inMempi
Hills. When a pundit, after an honest
study, declared that the horoscopes of
Balu andBrinda did not match, he was
curtly dismissed with a fee of one rupee.
Another astrologer, whomDr. Pal found,
gave it in writing that the two horoscope
matched perfectly and was paid Rs. 75
forhis pains. “Money can dictate the very
stars in their course.”Balu and his wife
were helped to set up an establishment
of their own in Lawley
Extension.Margayya, wishing to draw Dr.
Pal away from his son, sought his help in
attracting deposits from Black Marketers
on the promise of an interest of 29%. If
he got Rs. 20,000 deposit each day and
paid Rs. 15, 000 in interest, he had still
Rs. 5000 a day left in his hands as his
own.Margayya became rich. It was now
necessary for him to own a car. Every
nook and corner of hishouse was stuffed
with sacks full of currency notes. He was
on the right side of the
police,contributed to the War Fund when
driven to do so, and worked day and
night with his accountsand money bags,
though his wife was unhappy at his
straining himself so much.One day
Margayya visited his son in Lawley
Extension. He found Brinda and her
child. The girlcould not hold back her
tears, while narrating Balu’s nocturnal
activities. When Margayya got outof the
house, he found a car halting in front of
it. Out of which emerged Balu. His
companionswere Dr. Pal and a couple of
women in the town.The enraged
Margayya pulled Dr. Pal out of the car,
beat him and dismissed the two women
withcontempt. The next day Dr. Pal with
a bandaged face whispered to all and
sundry that thingswere not going well
with Margayya’s concerns. Hundreds of
people swarmed Margayya andpressed
him to return their deposits forth with.
All the accumulated wealth was
disbursed. Stillhundreds of people could
not be satisfied.The run on the Bank led
to Maragayya’s filing an insolvency
petition. And thus like a house ofcards
the wealth that Margayya had
accumulated was blown away. He
advised his son to take

his place under the Banyan tree with the

old box. When Balu hesitated to do that
for fear of whatpeople would say about
it, Margayya offered to do so himself.The
theme of the novel is lust for money. But
Margayya is no monster of greed and
wickedness.In his depiction of Margayya,
Narayan has succeeded in humanizing
him and showing thatdespite his lust for
money, he is a human being like us.K.R.
Srinivasa Iyengar observes, The Financial
Expert is, in its own sphere, quite
anachievement. It is clearly and even
sparklingly written, it is mildly satirical,
and it is unexcitingly interesting and
entertaining. Perhaps the main defects of
the novel is that its chief characters
arelittle better than caricatures; but so
are the ‘good companions’ in The
Pickwick Papers, and soare certain
Wellsian characters like the hero of Tono
Bungay and w Chitterlow of Kipps, who
persist in our imagination.The Financial
Expert’,( TFE), transports the reader
back to Malgudi, a fictious world of R
KNarayan’s imagination. The protagonist
here is Margaya, a complex and
entrancing character; agenius of financial
mathematics. Sitting under the shadow
of Banyan tree opposite to
Village’sCorporation Bank, Margaya
conducts his daily business which
involves helping the fellowvillagers with
financial transactions that mostly deal
with extraction of loan from the bank.
Hekeeps track of the account of each of
his client and earns his living by charging
on the adviceprovided as well as the
interest on the amount that he, at times,
loaned them..’
If the purpose of the co-operative
movement was the promotion of thrift
and the elimination ofmiddleman, those
two were just the objects that were
defeated here under the banyan tree.
”.On one occasion, when Bank Manager
cautions Margaya to stop his activities
and warns him ofpolice action if he ever
finds him sitting under the Banyan tree
again. Margaya feels insulted andswears
to become a rich man like the Manager (“
He has the right because he has more
money,authority, dress, looks – above all,
more money. Its money which gives
people all this. Moneyalone is important
in this world. Everything else will come
to us naturally if we have money in
ourpurse.
”). But being a man of limited resources
Margaya turns to Gods for help. Village
priesthelps him out with ways and
rituals to make Goddess Lakshmi happy
and obtain her blessings.But it’s only
after a series of entertaining events that
Margaya succeeds in getting hold
ofsomething that could help him get rich;
and once it starts, in time and along with
some tactful andsmart decisions and
tricks, Margaya becomes a Financial
Wizard, most known and most
soughtafter in whole of the Malgudi..

That’s one aspect of the story that

portrays Margaya as a smart,
knowledgeable but impassive man who
knows how to get the things done and
how to make the money grow with time.
It’sMargaya, as father, that shows the
reader a different side of his character.
Margaya as father isas common a man as
it could be. Balu, his spoilt son, right
from the childhood is a pain in the ASS
for Margaya. He throws Margaya’s
account book into the gutter and ends his
carrier as theadviser of Village folks for
their Bank Transactions. During school
years he fails to clear the 10thclass
exams repeatedly, even after application
of all tactful ways by Margaya, and
breaksMargaya’s dream of making Balu a
big and respectful man. He runs away
from home leading tolots of misery for
his parents and towards the end forms
the major reason for
Margaya’sdownfall..These two facets of
Margaya’s character and life are
brilliantly inter-woven by RKN.
ThroughMargaya, RKN covers, basically,
the tale of most financial experts of the
world; masters atmaking money but
ignorant of how to handle their families
..

and manages to grab hold of a reader’s

attention right from the first page with
introductionof Margaya and curious
reason behind his name. It goes at the
same pace for next 100 pages asreader
follows Margaya’s life, his business, his
amusing conversations with villagers
and his wife,his episodes with Balu, his
losing business and getting on the path
of puja-paath and rituals tobecome a rich
man; his meeting Dr. Pal and getting hold
of a book that changes his
lifecompletely..The sub-plots of Dr. Pal
drag the story a bit from the main plot,
infact that’s the case with most ofthe
characters here; the moment a new
character is introduced and attention is
taken away fromMargaya, you miss him.
It’s a good thing that there are hardly 2
or 3 such cases.

as the plot shifts back toMargaya, the

financial wizard. Last 50 or so pages
mark the epitome the book. Written so
impactfully that a reader like all the
characters of the story wonders how
Margaya’s managing hisbusiness by
giving out 20% interest on the money to
his clients. He starts to accrue a huge
sumof money and his whole house turns
out to be insufficient to store it. But then
comes the fall As he tries to get together
his family which in turn leads to
incidents that brings in his
financialcollapse..Written in trademark
RKN style,
. Althoughwritten from a 3rds person’s
point of view, everything is portrayed in
context of this character. And through it
all,
RKN has succeeded in putting it forward
with lots of hidden humor andirony.
If its humor you are lookingfor, well, you
get a bucketful of it blended with lots of
hidden irony and witty dialogues. At
thesame time it’s a serious story of a
man, which could beany man, who wants
to get rich andprovide his family with all
the stuff of the world, but in the process
he forgets where to stop; hekeeps
accumulating money when its his love,
care and attention that the family
actually needsand wish for..

“
Money is the greatest factor in life and is
most ill-used. People don’t know how to
tend it, how to manure it, how to water
it, how to make it grow, and when to
pluck its flowers and when to pluckits
fruits. What most people now do is to try
and eat the plant itself.