Swami and Friends

Swaminathan wanders several miles from home, feeling increasingly tired, hungry and ready to return home from his escape attempt. Heading towards home, he regrets defying the headmaster, and wishes that he had accepted his punishment. Nighttime arrives, and Swaminathan becomes terrified when he realizes he is lost.

Swaminathan wanders lost throughout the night, falling to the ground in despair and a fatigue so severe that he begins hallucinating and envisioning elephants, tigers, snakes, and scorpions attacking him.

The scene abruptly cuts to Swaminathan’s dream about the upcoming match between the M.C.C. and Y.M.U. In the dream, Swaminathan hits a sixer off the Y.M.U. bowler, and the crowd roars with approval. On the next play, the headmaster has replaced the Y.M.U. bowler, and this time, Swaminathan catches the bowl and fires it at the headmaster, hitting him in the face which shatters like window glass. M.C.C. wins the match and Swaminathan collapses with exhaustion.

Ranga, the cart driver that Swaminathan harassed in an earlier chapter, discovers Swaminathan sleeping by the road. He hoists the boy into his cart and takes him to a local officer named Mr. Nair.

The M.C.C.’s cricket match with the Y.M.U. is in full swing, and the M.C.C. is losing badly in the absence of their ace bowler. This infuriates Rajam; he feels that Swaminathan has let the team down. During the match, Rajam’s father approaches, revealing that they have found Swaminathan, but Rajam feigns indifference. When Mani asks him if they have indeed found Swaminathan, Rajam replies, “I don’t know.”

In the next scene, family and friends visit Swaminathan, relieved that he is okay. When he tells the crowd of visitors the truth about why he ran away, they all roar with laughter. Later, Swaminathan and Mani slip out through the back of the house, and Mani expresses his relief that his friend is home safe.

Mani reveals that they have lost the cricket match against Y.M.U, and that Rajam blames Swaminathan for the loss and for ruining the M.C.C. Swaminathan is initially shocked by the revelation, believing it is Saturday, not Sunday. He reassures Mani that he will make it up to Rajam when he next sees him. The chapter ends with Swaminathan explaining to Mani that he will be returning to the Board High School, because his father has straightened out everything with the headmaster. 

Ten days later, Swaminathan prepares to go to the Malgudi Railway Station to say goodbye to Rajam, whose father has been transferred to Trichinopoly, and he is leaving Malgudi for good. Although Rajam forbade Mani from divulging his departure to Swaminathan, Mani caved on the last day and told Swaminathan.

Rajam and his family depart at 6:00 a.m. on the following morning, and Mani was to spend the night and accompany him to the railway station. This infuriates Swaminathan, filling him with jealousy. He decides to bring a peace offering to Rajam in the morning to soothe his anger, and thus Swaminathan decides to give him a copy of Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales.

The next morning, Swaminathan stood on the train station’s platform with a copy of Fairy Tales and watched as Rajam and his family pulled up in a car. The platform swarms with police and Swaminathan, begins to panic, unable to make his way through the packed crowd to Rajam, who has already boarded the train with his family. Mani, however, takes charge, cutting through the crowd and leading Swaminathan up to Rajam’s compartment.

Rajam pokes his head out of the window, bidding Mani farewell, but refusing to acknowledge Swaminathan. As the train begins to depart, Mani takes Swaminathan’s copy of Fairy Tales, and gives it to Rajam. After the train leaves, the boys linger on the platform and Swaminathan is visibly upset. Mani consoles Swaminathan, telling him not to worry, revealing that Rajam had asked for his personal address and had promised to write him. Swaminathan greets this with skepticism, and the book ends with a note of ambiguity, as Swaminathan studies Mani’s face, unable to discern whether he has revealed the truth about Rajam’s intentions.