Swami and Friends

After flinging his headmaster’s cane out of a window, Swaminathan decides to flee Malgudi for good. As Swaminathan runs away in Chapter Seventeen, he wanders for many miles, and by nighttime, he is extremely lost and exhausted. The combination of fatigue, hunger, and thirst causes hallucinations; he imagines elephants, tigers, leopards, snakes, and scorpions swarming around him, ready to attack. These hallucinations prove to be revelatory. When the animals attack, they intend to do damage and harm, but Swaminathan’s rebellion and flight, on the other hand, causes unintentional damage and harm to his friends. By fleeing from punishment, he unwittingly punishes his M.C.C. teammates, who lose their match in his absence. Though Swaminathan is found and ultimately unharmed in his attempt at flight, he irreparably harms his friendship with Rajam, a reality revealed through the surreal hallucinations. 

The headmaster’s office window panes, and their shattering, are one of the more concrete symbols of the book. After Swaminathan destroys the window, his future is permanently changed though he does not know it at the time. The broken glass serves to represent that Swaminathan has defied the established order, causing a break that he cannot repair, and crossing a point of no return.