Rajam and Mani, no doubt, is the most famous short story among the students of class XII of West Bengal Board. This story simply presents the childhood or teenage minds. This is the story of three students- Swaminathan, Rajam and Mani. Swaminathan plays the spokesman of the writer. The story shows the progress of Rajam and Mani, from enmity to friendship. Though Swmainathan always wants to be the friend of Rajam, he just cannot do it because he regards the friendship of Mani, and as Mani thinks Rajam his enemy, how can he able to make friendship with Rajam in front of Mani? At the end of the story, we can see every tension is erased and Swaminathan, Rajam and Mani- they all become friends.
But, there is very grave subject, lies in the deep. Narayan shows the emotion to do crime, whether little or grave, easily engulfs the mind of a boy whom we think, a perfect representataion of sacred, holy and most preciously, God. Mani's explanations how to kill Rajam, and continuously thinking not to get caught in the hands of the police- carries the symbol of child-crime. Not only to process the ways to kill Rajam, in his mind, he also concentrates upon the facts to save himself, very like an expert criminal. His belly of mind gives a whirlwind, when he hears that Rajam's father is a police officer. And most likely a criminal he surrenders himself to Rajam, when he sees that Rajam brings a airgun to fight with him.
The severe criminality of human mind, if we go through the English literature, Joseph Conrad's The Heart of Darkness gives us a vivd account about the criminality of human mind which we can think 'developed'. But the best picture of child-criminality, we can find in William Gerald Golding's The Lord of the Flies where children murdered themselves quite brutally. However, R.K.Narayan also wants to show that how a boy's mind can be corrupted. And there is no doubt of it, that he is master in his art.
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