It is 1930, and the protagonist, Swaminathan, a young schoolboy living in the fictional southern Indian city of Malgudi, awakens on a Monday morning and lingers reluctantly in bed, dreading the long school day ahead. While his country begins a dramatic decade that will culminate in its historical independence from British colonial control, Swaminathan begins what looks like another obligatory school day.

A short time later, he rouses himself from bed and begins to collect his school clothes and texts. He positions himself at his work desk, which is located in the corner of his father’s dressing-room, and remembers that he has assignments in arithmetic, English, and geography, which he grudgingly begins in the two hours before class starts.

When Swaminathan arrives to class, he quickly becomes bored with the academic lecturing of his arithmetic teacher, Vedanayagam, and stares absentmindedly out the windows until the teacher asks to check homework. Dutifully, Swaminathan brings his notebook up to Vedanayagam’s desk to be checked; however, Vedanayagam, seeing his improper sums, pinches his arm and scribbles “Very Bad” at the bottom of his assignment.

Later in the school day, Swaminathan attends a Biblical Scripture class taught by a fanatical Christian named Mr.