bolstered by some of his successes, in 1940 narayan tried his hand at a journal, "indian thought". with the help of his uncle, a car salesman, narayan managed to get more than a thousand subscribers in madras city alone. however, the venture did not last long due to narayan's inability to manage it, and it ceased publication within a year. his first collection of short stories, "malgudi days", was published in november 1942, followed by "the english teacher" in 1945. in between, being cut off from england due to the war, narayan started his own publishing company, naming it (again) indian thought publications; the publishing company was a success and is still active, now managed by his granddaughter. soon, with a devoted readership stretching from new york to moscow, narayan's books started selling well and in 1948 he started building his own house on the outskirts of mysore; the house was completed in 1953. around this period, narayan wrote the story for the gemini studios film "miss malini" (1947), which remained the only story written by him for the screen that came to fruition.