 In 1980 , Narayan was nominated to the Rajya Sabha , the upper house of the Indian Parliament , for his contributions to literature . During his entire six @-@ year term , he was focused on one issue — the plight of school children , especially the heavy load of school books and the negative effect of the system on a child 's creativity , which was something that he first highlighted in his debut novel , Swami and Friends . His inaugural speech was focused on this particular problem , and resulted in the formation of a committee chaired by Prof. Yash Pal , to recommend changes to the school educational system . 
