Swami 'n beyond...
My Dad did his best to preserve memories by clicking photographs during almost all the stages of my childhood. But during early eighties shooting moving pictures was not a luxury for one and all. Video cameras for personal use started becoming popular in mid 90s. I wish I could see myself walk, cry, eat the baby food, play with everything available around me, in motion.
Talking about preserving memories, child actors in movies are better off. From among the most popular child actors, one of them is
Manjunath or W.S. Swaminatan - the latter know better than the former. He played the protagonist of the novella Swami and Friends in Shankar Nag's tele-serial Malgudi Days, which is an adaption of the short-stories and novellas of R.K.Narayan collected under the same name. The whole nation during 80s was baffled by the young boy's versatility and his professionalism in acting. It was the first Hindi tele-serial shot in South India at a hilly region of Agumbe (on the South Karnataka Coast).
But, an avid viewer of Malgudi Days will remember this young boy as the one who used to break window panes of his Principal's office at the Albert Mission School; who used to run at amazing speed along with the train; who threw his khadi cap into fire during Non-Cooperation Movement thinking that it is made from British fabric; who used to be the vice-captain of Malgudi Cricket Club; who used his baby brother's diaper to wipe his study table; who used to be his grandmother's pet and who used to be the soul of Malgudi.
Today, W.S. Swaminathan has grown up into a corporate executive working as a PR manager for 'Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise Limited' and is known as Manjunath Nayaker. He left acting at the age of 19 and is now open to roles only if they appeal to him.
According to him, he has received his biggest compliment for his acting from R.K Narayan himself, and it is:
