‘It was Monday morning. Swaminathan was reluctant to open his eyes. He shuddered at the very thought of school.’ R.K. Narayan’s classic stories about the adventures of a boy named Swami and his friends Rajam and Mani, in a sleepy and picturesque South Indian town called Malgudi, have regaled both young and old for years. Swami’s days are full of action. When he is not creating a ruckus in the classroom or preparing, in his inimitable way, for exams, he’s dreaming about running down the streets of Malgudi with the coachman’s son’s hoop; playing tricks on his grandmother; or stoning the school windows, inspired by a swadeshi demonstration. But the greatest feat of Swami and his friends lies in putting together a cricket team for the MCC (the Malgudi Cricket Club) and challenging the neighbouring Young Men’s Union to a match. Just before the match, however, things go horribly, horribly wrong, and Swami has no option but to run away from home, wanting never to return to Malgudi again. Malgudi Schooldays is a slightly abridged version of Narayan’s celebrated novel Swami and Friends, and includes two stories featuring Swami from Malgudi Days and Under the Banyan Tree. A delightfully funny account of the life of a harum-scarum schoolboy by one of the greatest English language writers of our time, Malgudi Schooldays enchants and captivates all those who step into its world