With the passing of Indian writer RK Narayan yesterday, the literary world lost a true gem - for there has never been and never will be another writer who writes like him; at least not with his humility as a writer of the English language.

This writer once referred to grammatical rules of the English language as "traps that the English language sets for foreigners" and yet none of his sentences were grammatically incorrect.

The writer Graham Greene once said of Narayan, "The novelist I most admire in the English language; without him, I could never have known what it was like to be an Indian".

Narayan, did indeed show the world what it was like to be a simple Indian, from the days of Mahatma Gandhi during British India until Indian independence and through to the modern 90s. He delved into the minds of the common Indian child, man and woman and how they perceived the world.

His first book ' Swami and friends ' was perhaps his very best and it is around this book that his later writings seemed to center upon. It was as if he could never let go of 'Swami and friends'.

I first read ' Swami and friends ' at a time when I thought the best English writings were English classics. It was a cheap Indian edition with loose, yellowed pages falling out but after that book, I was hooked on Narayanan.

Malgudi magic

In that book, Narayan created Malgudi, an imaginary town. But for many fans of Narayan, it was all too real for it to be just fiction.

There is not an iota of 'non-realness' in Malgudi; all the characters we seem to know and their traits we have witnessed somewhere else before. For Malaysians, especially those living in small towns, they will definitely be able to identify the characters with those around them.

His language is simple, no dictionaries needed. Thus, the humility of a writer who did not display his arrogance of his mastery of the English language, which he so wonderfully wove. None of the bombastic words and verbal diarrhea we are bombarded with nowadays in so-called literary pages, are found in Narayan's works.

His main character, Swami in Malgudi and his passion for the Malgudi Cricket Club (MCC) is a book that one can read over and over. One will never tire of what goes on in Malgudi - from the grandson telling his granny what happened in school to the political ideas Mahatma Gandhi was weaving among its citizens.

There are so many characters one can choose to look at, many with identities but no names like Mother, Father, Granny, The Printer or The Talkative Man (the reporter). There are so many streets one can choose to be in and one can almost feel oneself sitting under the horse statue in the town center, with all the bird droppings on it - in that world of Malgudi.

I once wondered if there was truly a Malgudi in India, only its name not Malgudi but something else.

Arresting readers

Other stories set in Malgudi were The Guide (which won the Sahitya Academy Award, India's highest literary honour), Mr Sampath , The Bachelor of Arts , The English Teacher , The Man Eater of Malgudi (which he tells from the viewpoint of a circus tiger), The Vendor of Sweets , Malgudi Days , Under the Banyan Tree and one of his latest, The Grandmother's Tale .

Another one of my favourites, which I just love to read again and again is the World of Nagaraj . It tells the story of how Nagaraj and his wife Sita raise their only son Tim with so much love, only to have him grow up to be a selfish young man who thinks only of his wife, Saroja.

Constantly seeking advise from his brother Gopu, Nagaraj tries to understand his daughter-in- law, who tortures her fatherlaw with her singing and harmonium.

The plots are not very original but the way Narayan brings the characters to life and the script peppered with Indian humour in simple words - this is what makes reading his stories unforgettable.

He starts off by arresting the interest of the reader straight away and he does this in all his stories. ' The Vendor of Sweets ' is an example. The story begins: "Conquer taste and you will have conquered yourself," said Jagan to his listener, who asked, "Why conquer the self?". Jagan said, "I do not know but all our sages advise us so."

When Narayan narrates a story, he does so without imposing his views on the readers. But his messages are clear and simple. For example, the love story in ' The Painter of Signs ' is about a man who falls in love with an educated woman who goes around the country to tell rural folk to practice family planning.

In that story, the signboard maker is so obsessed with his love and thinks of marrying her and having children (despite her trying to drum family planning into his head) and yet he is willing to follow her like a puppy.

Then there is the ' Dark Room ' in which the man has an extramarital affair and Narayan tells of the emotions of the wife who locks herself in a dark room.

Brown or black

Outside of India, the ' Dateless Diary ' takes a look at America and Narayan is just so apt in his observations of the little daily things we take for granted. For example, 'the headache' which he described to be the most useful excuse trumped up by humans as it is an ailment no one can prove one isn't suffering from.

He also wrote of his favourite drink - coffee, and he wondered why people always asked whether you wanted your coffee 'white or black' when the correct question should have actually been 'brown or black'.

He also wrote about the weirdness of Americans who are always looking for spiritual fulfillment from the East, to the extent they thought he was a spiritually inclined person, just because he was from India.

Although Narayan's forte is no doubt in creating reality out of his imagination, he did venture into retelling Indian legends, one of which is ' Gods, Demons and Others '. He retold these legends with such ease and simplicity, minus the voice from the sky and other theatrics.

What would have been such a bore to read for young people, Narayan made a joy. He wrote of Iswara, Narayana and Mahashakti, not in a religious way, but as if he was telling a 10-year-old what these legends were.

Narayan was awarded many Indian and international literary awards. In 1980, he received the AC Benson Medal from London's Royal Society of Literature and in 1982 he was made an honorary member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.

In 1986, he was nominated for a six-year term to the Rajya Sabha , the Upper House of the Indian Parliament in recognition of his outstanding literary stature.

A born storyteller indeed. Without Narayan, I am sure I would have never learned to appreciate the simplicity of the English language.