The Bachelor of Arts

The Bachelor Of Arts is usually considered part of a semi-autobiographical trilogy by the author. The first book in this trilogy is Swami and Friends, this book is the second, and The English Teacher is the final book.

These are considered to be one continuous story, of the same person as a child, as an adolescent just stepping into adulthood, and the same young man in the third book, though the names of the protagonists are different in each novel.

This story is about young Chandran, who has just graduated. He has also just fallen in love. He sees a young girl, Malathi, on the beach one day, playing with her younger sister, and is at once smitten by the girl, who is all of fifteen years old.

He asks his parents to approach the girl’s parents with an alliance. Being the potential groom’s parents, and therefore superior, they do it in a roundabout way. Meanwhile the impatient Chandran is lost in his dreams about Malathi, quite sure that it is only a matter of time before they are united. He just wishes it would not be too long before it happens.