narayan's greatest achievement was making india accessible to the outside world through his literature. he is regarded as one of the three leading english language indian fiction writers, along with raja rao and mulk raj anand. he gave his readers something to look forward to with malgudi and its residents and is considered to be one of the best novelists india has ever produced. he brought small-town india to his audience in a manner that was both believable and experiential. malgudi was not just a fictional town in india, but one teeming with characters, each with their own idiosyncrasies and attitudes, making the situation as familiar to the reader as if it were their own backyard. in 2014, google commemorated narayan's 108th birthday by featuring a doodle showing him behind a copy of malgudi days.