Mysuru: The two-storey bungalow of Malgudi creator and celebrated novelist R K Narayan which was restored and conserved as a memorial museum was inaugurated by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah here on Saturday, July 23. There are more than 100 collections of RK Narayan’s belongings including his coat, Padmabhushan certificates, his various collections of books and the spectacles which he used for reading and writing purposes at the museum. The building is called ‘RK Narayan’s House’. The government has also decided to come out with an interpretation centre at the museum.
RK Narayan moved to the bungalow which is in Yadavagiri in 1952 and lived there for decades before moving to Chennai in 1998. After his departure to Chennai, some of his relatives and cousins were living in the house and they too left to various places including Chennai. The family members of RK Narayan decided to sell the building. The building of Narayan was about to be demolished in September 2011, but people staged protest demanding the government to preserve the building. Based on people’s demand the then urban development minister Suresh Kumar too showed interest and later it was Betsurmath who had a major role in revamping the building and even managed to make it as a museum with good collections of things belonging to writer RK Narayan. The government took over the building and handed over Rs 2.4 crore to the family members of RK Narayan. Later as the building was damaged, the government spent Rs 30 lakh for renovation and Rs 5 lakh for landscaping.
Few days back, corporation officials had been to Chennai to procure some of the writer’s memorabilia. Granddaughter of Narayan Bhuvaneshwari agreed to provide articles which were used by Narayan. The corporation officials also requested Jayaram and Kartik who lived in the house to help arrange the items in the same manner as they were when Narayan lived in the house. On Thursday, the duo along with the Corporation Commissioner visited the building and briefed the corporation officials about Narayan’s stay in the house. Based on the duo’s suggestions, most of the things have been arranged at the museum.
If one visits RK Narayan’s House in Yadavagiri they can see his things including the table, chair and desk that were used by Narayan to pen his literary works, a dining table, medals, certificates including Padmabhushan, Padmavibhushan and furniture and books from his personal library. Apart from this, there are nearly 100 different collections of photographs of RK Narayan including that of Malgudi.
Betsurmath, Corporation Commissioner said, “To promote the museum, we will write a letter to the tourism department to include the museum among their tourist spots. To start with, there will be no entry fee but later entry fee will be charged. From Sunday itself, the museum will be open for the public between 10am and 5pm. Every Monday it will be closed”. He also mentioned that RK Narayan museum can also be used for research purpose.
With regarding to the responsibility of the museum, the government will decide if it will be handed over to University of Mysore, Corporation, MUDA or Heritage department. The decision will be taken at the earliest. After inaugurating the museum, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was overwhelmed with the collections. He went through the articles which were displayed. Betsurmath briefed Siddaramaiah about how the museum came to this level.
