The financial expert – as the name suggests,is a story of a person with comprehensive knowledge of managing money. The title of the book justifies its content as the leading man of the story and the name synonymous to this title was Margayya. No body knew his real name except his parents, who named their son after the enchanting God Krishna but were no more to tell what he originally called? He himself failed to recollect what his original name was. Margayya is a combination of two words marg and ayya and together it meant one who showed the way. As per his name he mainly showed the way out to those in financial trouble. He was born with a flair of money management and wanted to help and benefit needy by his this ingrained skill.
The hero of Rk Narayan’s this fiction Margayya is a simple and uncomplicated person. He is very clear and sorted in his head. He used to sit under the shed of banyan tree opposite to cooperative bank and helped people get loan from the cooperative bank. Amount of loan, what will be the interest rate and how much will be their monthly installment and how long it will take to pay off the loan, all these information he diligently imparted to all peasants and the destitute. People would hover around him and wait for their turn to consult him. He clearly announced that getting loan is their right and bank must cooperate with them. He was happy and pompous by doing his job until one day the secretary of the bank on the opposite side came and gave him a piece of his mind on his sitting there and instigating customers against the bank. The stature and eminence of the the secretary was big hence he dared say that to him, he reflected. Margayya felt humiliated and this instilled in him the thought of being rich. He, on the suggestion of a priest worshipped goddess lakshmi ceremoniously in order to get her blessings and be rich. Soon he realized that God only helps those who help themselves. In the meantime the crunch of money caused crunch of food and milk in the household that left his wife and son starved . He then thought of trying many things to make money. He tried his hand on selling books and this brought some cash to him but his conscience did not allow him to do that and he again set on
his old practice. This time he himself started taking deposits and in return gave good interest. No body knew what was going in his head and how he managed it. He engaged himself so much in the work that he hardly got time time to take care of his family. He ignored food and sleep and this resulted into worsening of his health. He also became ignorant of his son’s activity and his son got into bad hand and bad activities like smoking, drinking and playing cards.
Here he offers attractive interest and persuade people to deposit money to him. The talk spread like wildfire and there was a big line of all kinds of people in front of his shop to deposit money on 20 percent interest rate. Soon half of the money of the Malgudi town filled in bags were stored in his room leaving no space for the lady of the house to keep her clothes and belongings. He acquired houses and pieces of land also. But his son’s bad company was still worrisome and a matter of concern. Dr Pal once his friend, took advantage of his son’s ignorance and misled him and provoked him against his father. Margayya could not tolerate it and one night when he was returning after meeting and knowing the well-being of his daughter in law he saw a car stopped in front of the house, came out of the car his son with Dr pal. This very sight infuriated him,he tried to restrain himself but couldn’t and held this man by his collar and pushed him aside. Dr pal fell on the ground and got bruises on his head. As a revenge dr Pal broke all his ties from Margayya asked his friends to withdraw their money who were Margayya’s customer. Within a couple of days crowd inundated in front of Margayya’s house demanding their money back. Soon he lost all his cash and trust too and now he was back to square one.
The whole plot is quite engaging and gripping. Author’s lucid writing style makes it more enjoyable and interesting. Happy reading!!
