25 pages 50 minutes read

R. K. Narayan

The Vendor of Sweets

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1967

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Chapters 9-13

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 9 Summary

Jagan works at a spinning wheel to calm his mind, as Gandhi has suggested. His encounter with Chinna has made him reflective. He wonders if it is his destiny to help Chinna finish the installation of the goddess. He thinks about Nataraj and is annoyed that the man would print Mali’s prospectus immediately, while Jagan’s own project (and ideas) had languished with the printer for years.

Mali enters and says that they need to speak. He says that everyone is talking about Jagan in town, including the sait of Ananda Bhavan. Jagan says he does not care, because he has become a new, enlightened personality. Mali hands him a telegraph that arrived that day. It is from his American business associates. They are demanding to know if Mali and Jagan are going to financially support the story-writing manufacturing business by investing. Jagan says that Mali can have the sweet shop. He will leave it to him. Mali says he doesn’t want it, and in any case, everyone is saying that Jagan’s shop is no longer worth anything.

Pressuring him further, Mali says that if Jagan will not invest, Grace will have to leave; there will be no reason for her to stay, otherwise, and no opportunities for her.