Summary

The novel opens by describing the location of the offices for the journal, The Banner. The location is difficult to find in the twisting streets of Malgudi. Srinivas is the founder, writer, and editor for The Banner. He lives in an apartment building alongside four other families. The building’s owner is an old man who is said to bathe for hours in a street tap, which frustrates the local poor who cannot get water. The old man considers himself a Sanyasi, or ascetic.

Srinivas regrets the fact that, “Man has no significance except as a wage-earner, as an economic unit, as a receptacle of responsibilities” (8). He thinks about his father, who was a successful lawyer in Talapur and his brother who has taken over the law practice. He remembers a conversation with his brother, who encouraged him to provide for...