malgudi is a fictional fully urban town in southern india, conjured by narayan. he created the town in september 1930, on vijayadashami, an auspicious day to start new efforts and thus chosen for him by his grandfather. as he mentioned in a later interview to his biographers susan and n. ram, in his mind, he first saw a railway station, and slowly the name "malgudi" came to him. the town was created with an impeccable historical record, dating to the ramayana days when it was noted that lord rama passed through; it was also said that the buddha visited the town during his travels. while narayan never provided strict physical constraints for the town, he allowed it to form shape with events in various stories, becoming a reference point for the future. dr james m. fennelly, a scholar of narayan's works, created a map of malgudi based on the fictional descriptors of the town from the many books and stories.