R.K. Narayan’s delightfully funny tales of a harum-scarum schoolboy, Swami, have regaled both young and old for years. Swami’s days are full of creating a ruckus in the classroom, dreams of playing tricks on his grandmother or stoning the school windows, inspired by a swadeshi demonstration. When he puts together a cricket team for the MCC (Malgudi Cricket Club) and challenges the Young Men’s Union to a match, 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 and fully illustrated version of Narayan’s celebrated novel Swami and Friends, and includes two more stories featuring Swami.