This story is a series of experiences in the life of Krishna, an English teacher, and his quest towards achieving inner peace and self-development. The mentioned novel is critically analyzed based on the theme, plot, characterization, setting, social, cultural, and philosophical values.
1. The English Teacher The English Teacher is written by R.K. Narayan. The mentioned novel is critically analysed on the basis of theme, plot, characterisation, setting, social values, cultural values and philosophical values as depicted by Narayan. It was published in the year of 1945 and is preceded by Swami and Friends (1935) and The Bachelor of Arts (1937). The novel dedicated to Narayan’s wife Rajam, is not only autobiographical but also poignant in its intensity of feeling. The story is a series of experiences in the life of Krishna, an English teacher and his quest towards achieving inner peace and self development. The English Teacher novel is divided into eight chapters. Chapter -I Krishna is a main character of the present novel and he is a teacher of English in Albert Mission College, Malgudi, where he has been a student earlier. He recounts a typical day at work in the opening chapter of the novel. He goes about his work mechanically without deriving any real pleasure or satisfaction out of it. He is, therefore, amused when the Principal, Mr. Brown, convenes a meeting of the faculty after college hours to impress upon his colleagues, especially those in the department of English, to help maintain purity and perfection in the language. He is particularly agitated when the students adopt American spellings for English words, e.g., spelling “honours” as “honors”. Krishna tries to make light of the situation but his head and former teacher Gajapathy sides with Brown. He tells Gajapathy that there are blacker sins in this world than a dropped vowel but Gajapathy just walks away. Krishna discusses the matter with his colleagues in the hostel that evening and is told that the English department existed solely for dotting the i’s and
2. crossing the t’s. He is restless because his heart is not in the job and he is sticking to it only because he is being paid a hundred rupees a month for it. Nor does he think very highly of his colleagues. Krishna decides to take himself in hand and decides to go for a walk early in the morning. On his return, he decides to devote some time to writing poetry. He is convinced that he is going to make a mark in this field and become a famous poet one day, although he has not yet decided which language. English or Tamil, is going to be enriched by his contribution. He decides to put this plan into action immediately before mugging up his lessons every morning and make his unwilling students to mug them up in order to do well in the examinations. Chapter -II The second chapter deals with the story of setting up the house. He receives a letter from his father informing him that he should now start setting up his house with his wife and daughter and leave the college hostel. He goes out hunting for a house. When he finds one, he moves out of the hostel. His mother arrives with his wife and child and helps him in starting his own household. His mother, a stickler for a neat and clean and well-ordered household, trains Krishna’s wife Susila in all household matters and leaves after two months. A period of domestic bliss starts. Susila waits for him every afternoon in the doorway every afternoon when he returns from college and serves him coffee and snacks. While she is busy preparing dinner, Krishna plays with the child and looks after her. His mother’s rigorous training has made Susila a responsible housewife. She is a “ruthless accountant” who keeps track of all the expenses. He finds that there is an autocratic strain in here, and unsuspected depths of rage when it comes to keeping accounts and managing their monthly provisions. This often leads to minor squabbles between the two. Susila is
3. disturbed when Krishna’s mother sends an old woman from the village to help her in the kitchen so that she can devote more time to the child. An additional member in the house means more expenses and wastage, and Susila grumbles about it. But eventually she accepts the old lady’s presence in the house. She is a firm believer in the adage that they must live within their means and save enough for the child. She has firmly decided to have just one child, and does not like it when Krishna jokes about having more children. With the future in mind she plans all their finances. Susila encourages Krishna to write poetry but makes fun of him as he tries to reproduce Wordsworth’s lines, “She was a phantom of delight” to please and impress her since he cannot hit upon any subject to give vent to his poetic aspirations. She accuses him of copying and urges him to be original. Their first serious quarrel is caused by Susila’s selling of Krishna’s old clock, which keeps irregular time and its alarm rings at all odd hours thus disturbing the sleeping child, as well as his old papers. Krishna shouts at her and she starts sobbing. They refuse to talk to each other for forty-eight hours. Both of them feel miserable about it. It is Krishna who eventually breaks the ice by taking her to a film. They decide not to quarrel in the future because, as Susila puts it, “They say such quarrels affect a child’s health.” Chapter III The third chapter deals with the story of their last day of happiness. Krishna is happy when, on the occasion of the child’s third birthday, his father offers him a loan to buy his own house in Malgudi. The couple start discussing the sort of house they would like to buy as Krishna thinks it too much of a bother to buy a plot of land and build a house on it. So on a Sunday morning after entrusting the child to the care of the old lady, they set out to inspect the various houses on offer in Lawley Extension through Krishna’s colleague
4. Sastri, the logic teacherturned-builder. Susila looks resplendent in her favourite indigo saree. She looks indeed “a phantom of delight” to a bewitched Krishna. There is ‘a perpetual smile in her eyes’ and she exudes the fragrance of jasmine. Krishna decides to call her Jasmine hereafter and name their house Jasmine Home. But before going to Lawley Extension, Krishna takes her to Bombay Ananda Bhavan for breakfast. Then they take a detour to the river to wash her feet. They inspect a number of houses in Lawley Extension and finally select one as their future abode. As Krishna is discussing the price and other details with Sastri and the building contractor, Susila walks into a filthy lavatory in the back of the house and locks herself in. Krishna kicks open the door and when Susila comes out, she appears disturbed. The filth inside the lavatory has nauseated her and a fly has sat on her lips. But she temporarily feels better as they visit a nearly temple on their way back. Feeling uneasy, Susila lies down when they return home. She is unable to have her food as she recalls her experience of having been locked up inside the lavatory. She remains confined to her bed for the next four days. But when she shows no signs of recovery, Krishna is worried. He decides to consult a doctor. Krishna goes to Dr. Shankar of Krishna Medical Hall. Dr. Shankar is the most successful medical practitioner in Malgudi and his clinic is always crowded with patients. There is a kind of redtapism and mechanical nature of dispensing medicines in the clinic which Krishna doesn’t like. But he has no choice but to bear with it. The doctor prescribes some medicines for Susila but is too busy to visit her at home. But when these medicines have no effect, he visits Susila at home and tries to cheer her. Initially he diagnoses Susila’s illness as malaria but when her fever does not come down, he takes a sample of her blood and arrives at the conclusion that she is suffering from typhoid. Susila’s room is turned into a sickward. Her concerned parents arrive and her father takes turns with Krishna to nurse Susila
5. and keep a vigil on her condition at night. The child Leela is kept away from her mother. She is looked after by the old lady and Susila’s mother. When Susila’s condition does not improve, Dr. Shankar has her examined by a visiting doctor from Madras. But it is too late now. Susila dies leaving behind a “blind, dumb and dazed” Krishna, her disconsolate parents and the child. She is cremated according to Hindu rites on the banks of the river beyond Nallappa’s Grove. The short domestic idyll comes to an end. Chapter IV The forth chapter talks about the Krishna’s loneliness. The days acquire a peculiar blankness and emptiness for Krishna, the only relief being the sight of his child. He does not wish to part with her; he decides to bring her up himself, to which end he concentrates his whole being. His mother occasionally comes to stay with him to help him bring up the child. He loses whatever little interest he has in his college work. Despite well-meaning advice, he refuses to marry again. Krishna has disturbed sleep as his wife’s memories keep haunting him. He locks up her room, which is opened once a week for sweeping and cleaning. And he spends all his time in looking after the child and in listening to her prattle. He reads bedtime stories to her and this keeps him occupied. Chapter V The fifth chapter discusses how Krishna makes a medium to communicate with his dead wife. One day as he has finished his work in college, a boy comes to see him. He has been working for Krishna and he hands over a note from his father to Krishna. It contains a message from his dead wife whose spirit has been trying to communicate with and has at last found medium through whom she can get in touch with him. She has been watching over her husband and the child since her death. Krishna accompanies the boy to his house a couple of miles away and meets a gruff and cheerful peasant who takes
6. him to a pond, an sitting there beside a temple, tells him about he has been chosen to act as the medium between Krishna and the spirit of his dead wife. He takes out a notebook and his pencil automatically moves over the papery trying to receive a message from Susila for her husband. After a false start, he succeeds. Susila tells him that she is quite happy in the other region and she wants him to be calm and relaxed in life; he should stop worrying about the child who is quite happy. Krishna is elated. The medium asks him to come there every Wednesday in the afternoon to continue these sittings, which Krishna complies with. It is a rich experience - a glimpse of eternal peace for him. Gradually Susila’s spirit starts communicating with Krishna and advising him on his day to-day affairs. For instance, she advises Krishna to put the child in school. Krishna finds out that the child has already been going to a nearby school for small children run by an eccentric looking headmaster who has devoted his life to this cause. He meets the man and is impressed by his dedication and devotion. Leela finds the school interesting and Krishna formally enrols her there one day. He goes about his work with a light heart. The sense of futility leaves him and he attends to his work earnestly. He continues his Wednesday sittings with the medium although he is sometimes disappointed with the outcome. The overall effect on his mind is calm and relaxing. Susila’s spirit repeatedly asks him to look for her favourite ivory-sandalwood casket and the bundle of fourteen letters she had written to him, which he has not been able to destroy even though he has destroyed all her letters. But he cannot find them when he rummages through Susila’s belongings. But a look at her possessions brings back fond memories, particularly of the perfumes she was so fond of. At the next sitting Susila asks Krishna about the perfume she is wearing. She is glad to be near him. She tells him that she has evolved spiritually since her death and is always at his side.
7. She mentions the dress she is wearing at that time, the one he saw in her trunk and which he always liked. It is a pity, he cannot see her out she hopes that Krishna will be able to see her one day when his ‘sensibilities’ are improved. She still looks the same person as she was on earth but without any of her ailments when she was alive, she says. While going home that evening, Krishna plucks some jasmine buds and keeps them near his pillow at night. He can indeed feel her fragrance and presence in the room. He is now convinced that she is with him. Chapter VI The sixth chapter deals with the description of Leela’s school. Krishna decides to spend the next Sunday in his daughter’s company but she is getting for school early in the morning. Krishna learns that there are no Sundays in her school and decides to accompany her there. About twenty children are already there, running about and playing; the see-saws and the swings are in full use. Krishna is taken around his thatch-roofed room by the headmaster who shows him the handiwork of children in pictures, cardboard cut-outs and clay figures. He is trying a new experiment in education which, he believes, should aim at shaping the mind and character of students without undue emphasis on sports and games. For this no fancy building or elaborate set-up is required. Only a shed and a few mats are required in addition to open air. Krishna then witnesses a story session that the headmaster invites the children to participate in. With the help of charts and pictures, the children follow the story of a bison, a tiger and a bear in Mempi Forests. As the story progresses, they take sides with the various characters and are thoroughly involved with the happenings in the story that the headmaster goes on improvising. At the end of the story Leela wants a cat and the headmaster promises to get her one. For this she will have to come to his house. Leela
8. readily agrees. On way to the headmaster’s home, Krishna invites him to have dinner at his house. There the headmaster talks of reducing everything to simple basics as the children do; he considers them gods on earth. Krishna is impressed with this eccentric-looking man, tells him that he would have liked to remain a bachelor without encumbrances so that he could devote all his time to the cause children’s education, The headmaster lives in a neglected part of the town. It is full of dirt, dust and grime. His wife is a virago and his children are uncouth and wild. The wife starts quarrelling with her husband, unmindful of the presence of Krishna and the child. The cat that he promised Leela is nowhere to be found and the headmaster returns to Krishna’s hoi where he feels more relaxed and at peace with himself. As they go for a walk on the riverside, the headmaster tells Krishna how he has been forced into the marriage. He has left his parental home because he refused to take up a job after graduation and his wife still misses the comforts of that house. After his father’s death, his house is occupied by his stepmother and her children, and he refuses to get into litigation in order to get his legal rights. This is what worries his wife but he has not lost hope for her yet. We should not despair even for the worst on earth, he tells Krishna. He has been inspired to start his school because his teachers made him take a “wrong turn” in life. He is trying a new system of education in which the children are left alone to pursue their hobbies and interests; this will make them wholesome beings, and also help us, those who work along with them, to work off the curse of adulthood. And he wants to work towards his end which is very near. An astrologer has already worked out and told him the date and time of his death. Since the astrologer’s other predictions in his life have turned out to be true, the headmaster is convinced that this will also be true. That’s why he is so patient with his wife, he tells Krishna.
9. Chapter VII The seventh chapter discusses about the direct communication with Krishna’s wife. Krishna’s sittings with the medium are disrupted for a weeks because the man is either ill or away on some work. Krishna is desolate. Then they try sittings in absentia at fixed times and the medium conveys it through letters to Krishna. Eventually he succeeds in directly communicating with Susila’s spirit at the dead of the night. This gives “inexplicable satisfaction” to both of them. Susila assures him that she is happy and she wants Krishna to be happy, calm and relaxed for her sake. She assures him that she is always with him and is watching his every move and activity. One night the headmaster comes as Krishna is getting ready to communicate with his wife. He says that his end has come, as predicted by the astrologer and he wants Krishna to take charge of his school. His life has gone on strictly as predicted by the astrologer and he may not see the sunrise. Krishna finds him the strangest man he has ever come across - one who is looking forward to his own death as if he were going to the next street. The next morning Krishna goes to the headmaster’s house to inform her of her husband’s ‘death’. She starts wailing loudly and people crowd around her. Just then, the headmaster appears. His wife and children cling to his feet. But he sees this as a new life for him. He is glad that the astrologer’s prediction has gone wrong because he is meant for better things in life. He gives up his family life and detaches himself for his wife and children. He fixes a monthly allowance for them but breaks all ties with them. He stays in the school premises and is happy in the company of small children. Krishna’s mother comes to visit him and the child. She brings a gold chain for Leela. As she takes it out to put it round the child’s neck, Krishna notices that she takes it out of the ivory sandalwood box that Susila has
10. mentioned. He takes the box and measures it. It has more or less the same specifications as mentioned by Susila’s spirit. But he fails to unearth the bundle of fourteen letters that she has talked of while communicating with him and his father-in-law is of no help in this matter. Leela goes with her grandmother to the village. She is happy in the company of other children and a teacher comes every day to teach her. Krishna visits her on the weekends and gradually comes to accept the loneliness of his own existence. He is happy that his child is being looked after and educated. She has also been well provided for by both her grandfathers. So he has nothing much to worry about in life. Chapter VIII The last chapter concludes the entire novel with resignation of Krishna. Since he is at peace with himself now, Krishna makes up his mind to give up his job in Albert Mission College. It is monotonous, dull and dreary even though it gives him a regular Income of a hundred rupees per month. The Principal asks him to reconsider his decision but Krishna is determined. He is given a farewell at everyone calls him “an uncompromising idealist” at the function held in his honour. But Krishna tells them that he is no idealist; he is going to do what he likes to do: devote his time and energies to the education of small children in the headmaster’s school at a paltry salary of twenty-five rupees a month. Krishna is now calm and relaxed as he has direct communion with the spirit of his dead wife at night. He is at peace with himself at last. The Major Characters Krishna Krishna is a lecturer at Albert Mission College in Malgudi, where had been a student earlier. He is about thirty when the novel opens and he goes about his job of teaching students mechanically by rote. He finds no satisfaction in it as he feels that his true calling is writing poetry. Narayan does not tell us
11. about his physical appearance or anything else about him. Krishna does not think much of Principal Brown’s agitation over the dropping of a vowel when Brown convenes a meeting of the staff over the word “honours” being spelt as “honors” in accordance with American spelling. When his department head Gajapathy sides with Brown over this obvious blasphemy, Krishna tells him: Mr. Gajapathy, there are blacker sins in this world than a dropped vowel... Let us be fair. Ask Mr. Brown if he can say in any of the two hundred Indian languages: Later, he talks it over with his colleagues in the hostel and is told by Rangappa that the English department existed solely for dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s” But he is not satisfied. He does not think much of his colleagues any way, and is surprised to find out that Sastri is interested more in house-salesmanship than in teaching logic to students. On another occasion, Gajapathy admonishes him: You haven’t get dropped the frivolous habits of your college days, Krishna. Krishna has this “seriousness of outlook” only after he has a satisfying day in college. He remarks: I was on the whole very pleased with my day - not many conflicts and worries, above all not too much of criticism. I had done almost all the things I wanted to do, and as a result I felt heroic and satisfied. Inwardly though, he is wary of the monotonous and mechanical nature of his work. He introspects: Who was I that they (the students should obey my commands? What tie was there between me and them? Did I absorb their personalities as did the old masters and merge them in mine? I was merely a man who mugged earlier than they the introduction and the notes in the Verity edition of Lear... I did not do it out of love for them or for Shakespeare but only out of love for myself. He teaches in the college because he is paid a hundred rupees per month. Later when Susila finds him hesitant to explain lines in a poem to her, she makes taunt that he is an English teacher in school and not at home. Krishna is convinced that his real calling is poetry. To satisfy this urge, he decides to get
12. up early in the morning everyday and go to the riverside for a walk. He is inspired by his natural surroundings and writes a poem on the beauty of Nature. He aspires to be a great poet of Nature and resolves to write at least a hundred lines of verse every morning before sitting down to prepare his lessons for teaching his equally disinterested students. Comically enough, he tries to pass off Wordsworth’s lines; “She was a phantom of delight” to Susila as his own; he feels sheepish when she points it out to him. Later when he visits the medium man at his house, Krishna admires the house and the surroundings. It is truly a haven for a tortured soul like him with acres and acres of trees, shrubs, orchards, the murmuring casuarinas, a lotus pond and a ruined temple on its bank. These are ideal surroundings for communicating with the spirit of his dead wife. When Krishna receives a letter from his father informing him of the arrival of Susila and the child, he gets nostalgic about his past. After his B.A. he refused to enter government service, as many of his generation did, but went back and settled in his village and looked after his lands and property. He still writes with a steel pen with a fat green wooden handle and in his trademark ink, the preparation of which Krishna still recalls. But more than that is the memory of his elder brother bullying all his siblings in the cart that took them to the nearest town, Kavadi, for buying ingredients for his father’s special ink. We learn that the elder brother’s wife, being the daughter of a High Court judge, could not get along with Krishna’s mother, a stickler for household order and neatness. But Krishna’s brother keeps sending presents on Deepavali to Leela and constantly enquires about Susila’s health when she falls ill, Krishna fondly remembers him. Krishna’s love for his wife and child transcends everything else in his life. He is thoroughly devoted to them. He loses all sense of time in looking after Susila when she falls ill. He tries his best to nurse her back to health and is completely devastated when she dies. He contemplates suicide but
13. the thought of his daughter Leela stops him from taking this extreme step. He is “dumb, blind, and dazed” and loses all interest in life. He suffers from insomnia, tossing about his bed in agony. Condolences, words of courage, lamentations, or assurances - he is indifferent to them. His days are filled “with a peculiar blankness and emptiness” till he receives a message from a stranger who helps him to communicate with the spirit of his dead wife. Krishna feels satisfaction when he comes to know that she is happy in the other world and she keeps a benign eye over him and the child. She wants him to be happy and relaxed. Gradually he learns to communicate with her on his own after he has improved his “sensibilities” and seeks satisfaction in the work that enjoys. He gives up his well-paid college job and starts working in the small children’s school run by the Headmaster at a pittance. He has the constant company of Susila’s spirit which provides him with “a moment of rare, immutable joy - a moment for which one feels grateful to Life and Death” as he goes through his life with the zeal of “an uncompromising idealist”. Susila Susila is the wife of The English Teacher Krishna. A loving wife and mother, she is the replica of an ideal Hindu wife. Even though she enjoys a short happy married life, her presence pervades the novel. Like Krishna, however, Narayan does not tell her much about her physical appearance. All that we know is that she is extremely religious, sprightly and devoted to her husband and child. Susila is introduced when she arrives at the Malgudi station along with the seven-month-old Leela and her father. Krishna has been pacing up and down the station, concerned about her and the child as well as the enormous amount of luggage she is bringing with her to set up house there. Krishna’s mother is already there to train her in household chores and Susila acquits herself creditably.
14. After Krishna’s mother leaves, Susila takes up her duties as a responsible housewife and reigns with an iron hand. Krishna is extravagant, whereas Susila is parsimonious. She becomes his “cash-keeper” and proves to be “a ruthless accountant”. Krishna says: In her hands, a hundred rupees seemed to do the work of two hundred, all through the month she was able to give me money when I asked. When I handled my finances independently, after making a few savings and payments, I simply paid for whatever caught my eyes and paid off anyone who approached me, with the result that after the first days, I went about without mone. With the arrival of Susila all these have been changed. She keeps a strict check on household expenditure and whenever Krishna even slightly deviates from her list of groceries, it leads to a minor squabble between the two. Krishna remarks: I found that there was an autocratic strain in her nature in these matters, and unsuspected depths of rage . Only once does it lead to a fierce quarrel when Susila sells his old alarm clock with some useless papers. Krishna is livid and he shouts at her. They do not speak for forty-eight hours and eventually it is Krishna who makes the first move as he cannot bear her sobbing and crying. Susila readily agrees and they go out to watch a film. They resolve not to quarrel because; as she firmly believes that such quarrels can affect a child’s health. Susila waits in the garden when Krishna returns from the college in the afternoon although she pretends: I didn’t come out to look for you, but just to play with the child. She serves him coffee and tiffin, and Leela is looked after by Krishna till she goes about getting the dinner ready. She regards the old woman sent by Krishna’s mother to help her in her domestic chores as “unnecessary expense” but is soon reconciled to this. She firmly believes in the adage that one must live within one’s means, and save enough. She has extracted a firm promise from Krishna that Leela is going to be their only child and they must save for her marriage. Whenever he jokes about having more children, she covers his mouth with her fingers and reminds him of
15. his promise. Susila shares Krishna’s love for poetry and encourages him to write. But when he reproduces Wordsworth’s lines, “She was a phantom of delight”, she is quick to pull him up for copying and Krishna ends up bookish sheepish. And whenever Krishna shows the slightest hesitation in explaining a verse to her, she declares that do not try to Explain English at home. He should perform his duty as an English teacher only in school and not at home. Susila is excited when Krishna’s father offers to loan them money to buy a house on Leela’s third birthday. They set out to inspect houses on an early Sunday morning. She is dressed in her favourite indigo saree and smells of jasmine. Krishna is bewitched; he decides to call her Jasmine hereafter and their house Jasmine Home. When he tries to flirt with her, she cautions him that she hopes you’ve not forgotten that they are in a public road. Krishna treats her to a sumptuous breakfast at Bombay Ananda Bhavan. Susila is taken up with the coloured marble tiles on the walls there and, in spite of Krishna telling her that such tiles are used in European bathrooms; she wants to have them in the house. When Krishna agrees, she quips: “What if they are! People who like them for bathrooms may have them there, others if they want them elsewhere ...” Krishna is keen to please her. Susila’s “helplessness, innocence, and her simplicity” move him deeply. Her eyes always laughed”, he recalls, “there was a perpetual smile in her eyes” (Narayan: ). Before going to Lawley Extension, Susila wants to take a detour to the riverside to bathe her feet. Krishna agrees. He promises to take her on a tour to Europe when he has made enough money from the money he makes out of his books that he is going to write. She must see the world, he tells her. But, alas, this is not to be. Susila contracts typhoid after she locks herself in a filthy lavatory in the house they have seen and liked. Krishna is so devoted to her that he loses all sense of time as he tries his best to nurse her back to health. He is devastated when she dies after just five years of happy married life. There is a sense of “peculiar blankness and emptiness” in
16. Krishna’s life. He is stunned at this sudden loss till Susila’s spirit decides to communicate with him, first through a medium and then directly. She assures him that she is happy in the other world and that she is keeping a constant watch over him and the child. She is aware of their day-to- day activities and would like him to be calm and relaxed, and improve his “sensibilities” if he wants to be in constant communion with her. Under her benign watch and influence, Krishna goes about his work with a light heart. The day seems to be full of surprise and joy even in such a dull, dreary and monotonous routine that he follows in college. At every sitting she reminds of her ivory sandalwood box and the fourteen letters written by her to him which he hasn’t been able to destroy. Fortunately, Krishna finds the box in his mother’s possession but is unable to trace the letters. Krishna finds fulfilment at last and takes up the work that pleases him and gives him immense satisfaction. He gives up his college job and starts working in the school for small children at a quarter of the salary he was getting in college. With Susila’s spirit constantly by his side, he experiences “a moment of rare, immutable joy - a moment for which one feels grateful to Life and Death”. As in life, Susila is constantly with him even after her death, thus testifying to the power and permanence of true love. She indeed proves to be “a phantom of delight” for her husband as she continues to guide and inspire him long after she has departed from this world. The Peasant Krishna is devastated after the death of his beloved wife Susila. He is “dumb, blind and dazed”; everything is over in the world for him. He contemplated committing suicide but the thought of his child Leela stops him from taking this extreme step. He goes about his work in college like a zombie, devoting all his time to Leela’s care and upbringing. He feels “a peculiar blankness and emptiness”, and is indifferent to condolences, words of courage, lamentations, etc. all his senses are “blurred and vague”. He sleeps irregularly and is tormented by memories of his short happy married life. In the darkness I
17. often felt an echo of her voice and speech or sometimes her moaning and delirious talks in sick bed,” he says. There were subtle links with a happy past... (Narayan: ). Then one day he received a message from a stranger through a boy. The note says: This is a message for Krishna from his wife Susila who recently passed over... She has been seeking all these mouths some means of expressing herself to her husband,, but the opportunity has occurred only today, when she found the present gentleman a very suitable medium for expression. Though him she is happy to communicate. She wants her husband to know that she is quite happy in another region, and wants him also to eradicate the grief in his mind. We are nearer each other than you understand. And I’m always watching him and the child (Narayan: ). The message rejuvenates Krishna. He accompanies the boy to his father’s house. He is in a state of ecstasy and excitement when he meets a chubby, cheerful-looking peasant who welcomes him warmly and takes him to a quiet retreat near a lotus pond, the mango tree and the lovely ruined temple and explains to Krishna how he took a chance by contacting him through his son. As the casuarina murmur in the background, the peasant sits down with a pad and pencil. The pencil starts moving on its own as the spirits convey to him how they have been clamouring to “bridge the gulf between life and after-life’”; they have been looking for a medium through whom they could communicate. They ask the peasant to relax his mind and transcribe what Susila’s spirit wants to convey to her husband. The message begins: Here is Susila, wife of Krishna, but as yet she is unable to communicate by herself. By and by she will be adept in it (Narayan: ). Wednesday afternoons are fixed for communicating with Susila’s spirit through the medium of the peasant who closes his eyes through these trances as his fingers move automatically on the paper. He is in a frenzy as he keeps on transcribing on paper till the spirits ask him to slow down asking him to stop writing in precisely half an hour. Susila’s spirit conveys it through the medium that she is eager to communicate with him. But she is very much excited and she is also
18. not able to collect her thoughts easily. After a false start where Susila’s spirit gives the name of the child as Radha (whereas it is Leela), she assures him that such initial difficulties will be gradually surmounted. All this while the peasant acting as the medium is unself-conscious and his mind is passive. Conditions are favourable at their next sitting and Krishna successfully communicates with the spirit of his wife. Susila asks him why he has destroyed all the letters she wrote to him but says that there is still a bundle of fourteen letters that he hasn’t been able to lay his hands on and destroy. She asks him to find the bundle as well as an ivory-sandalwood box that was her favourite and in which she kept her knick-knacks. Krishna returns home, opens Susila’s trunk but is unable to find these two objects mentioned by her. At the next meeting she asks him not to fret about the child. The child is happy; she has started going to a nearby school for small children. In fact, the child is closer to her than her husband as “children are keener-sighted by nature”. She refers little to her departed mother because she doesn’t want to hurt her father’s feelings. There is a certain peace about her which the elders lack. Krishna is elated. These days he goes about his work with renewed zeal; a void seems to have been filled in his life. He devotes himself to his studies energetically and then plays with the child, hearing her ceaseless prattle. One day he discovers that the child has gone to a neighbourhood school. He takes her there and enrolls her as he is impressed by the headmaster’s views on the education of children. The headmaster is another profound contact he makes. At every subsequent sitting, Susila keeps providing him with more and more details about their short but happy married life. She now shares with him the perfume that she has put on and says that it is a pity he cannot smell it. She assures him that she is happy and that he should not worry about her, adding: Time as such does not exist in heaven. Life there is one of thought and experience, of aspiration, effort and joy, A considerable slate is taken up by meditation. The greatest ecstasy lies in feeling the Divine Light flooding the souls. She asks him to develop his “sensibilities” through
19. meditation and have a calm and relaxed mind to facilitate direct communication with her. Krishna is unable to communicate with Susila for the next three or four weeks as the peasant is either ill or busy with family affairs. Then they decide to try sittings in absentia. They sit in their respective places at a fixed time and meditate on Susila’s spirit. The medium then conveys the message through letters to Krishna. Susila has found “fulfilment” in the other world. She informs Krishna that she is always by his side watching his every move. She tells him how she is dressed and what perfume she wears at a particular sitting. Krishna cannot, however, sec her by his side, sitting to his left on the floor with her arm resting on his lap. She starts appearing in his dreams. And if he wants to verify her presence in the room, she asks him to keep some jasmine buds under his pillow at night and he would feel the difference when he smells them in the morning. Krishna now wants to communicate directly with his wife’s spirit and seeks the medium’s guidance in this matter. The spirit conveys to him that he must not allow his mind to be disturbed by anything; he must not be gloomy and unsettled if he wants to establish direct communication with her. You must keep your body and mind in perfect condition, before you aspire to become sensitive and receptive. Finally, she advises him: “Relax, be passive and think of me, and be receptive.” Krishna follows her instructions and henceforth he is able to communicate directly with her. But the importance of the peasant who initially acted as the medium between Krishna and the spirit of his dead wife Susila cannot be minimised. He plays a vital role in coming to Krishna’s rescue when the latter is despondent and has given up all hope in life. After coming in contact with this stranger, Krishna discovers a new meaning in life and after- life. As he relaxes and rids his mind of gloomy thoughts, he is gradually able to establish direct communion with the spirit of his dead wife. He is obsessed with her in death, as in life. This leads to an all-pervasive harmony in his life.
20. Susila’s spirit urges him to seek inner satisfaction and he consequently resigns his college job to work in the headmaster’s school for a quarter of his college salary to pursue his experiment in education. Susila’s spirit is there with him to guide him and this leads to “a moment of rare, immutable joy - a moment for which one feels grateful to Life and Death”. The Headmaster The Headmaster, who runs a school for small children in Krishna’s neighbourhood, has no name. When Krishna asks him his name, he says; “Just Headmaster will do...” We are introduced to him when one day he comes to Krishna’s home to drop his daughter Leela, who has been attending his school while Krishna is away at college. The headmaster appears to be an eccentric character. He is a slight man, who looks “scraggy” as he evidently doesn’t much care for his appearance. His hair falls on his nape because he neglects to cut it, and his coat is frayed and un-pressed. Krishna likes him immensely and he wants to know more about him. There are no restrictions in his school as children can come and leave at any time they like. Leela is extremely happy when her father decides to enroll her there. She keeps on talking about the school all the time. She wonders why her father doesn’t teach at her school, which is nearby, and at one which is far off. There are no holidays. Children excitedly come to school even on Sundays, and so does the headmaster. He hasn’t taken a holiday in the last fifteen years since he has been running this school which keeps so busy and fruitfully engaged that he has not felt the need for a holiday at all. “Holidays bore me,” he tells Krishna who finds him “an extraordinary man”. When Krishna goes to enrol Leela in the school, the headmaster is “in raptures over the new arrival”. He takes Krishna round the school. He has partitioned the main hall into a number of rooms. The partition screens can all
21. be seen, “filled with glittering alphabets and pictures drawn by children - a look at it seemed to explain the created universe”. One can find everything one wants there —”men, trees, and animals, skies and rivers”. The headmaster explains proudly: “All these - work of our children…. Wonderful creatures! It is wonderful how much they can see and do! I tell you, sir, live in their midst and you will want nothing else in life. In the narrow space he has crammed every conceivable plaything for children, see saws, swings, sand heaps and ladders. “These are the classrooms,” he says: Not for them. For us elders to learn. Just watch them for a while. The children are digging into the sand, running up the ladder, swinging, sliding down slopes all so happy. The place is dotted with the coloured dresses of these children, “bundles of joy and play”. The headmaster explains: This is the meaning of the word joy - in its purest sense. We can learn a great deal watching them and playing with them. When we are qualified we can enter their life... When I watch them, I get a glimpse of some purpose in existence and creation. He is putting into practice the game-way in studies which everyone talks of but no one practises and he is enthusiastic about it. When Krishna accompanies Leela to school one Sunday, he is surprised. There is no sign at the school to show that it is a Sunday. It is alive with the shouts of children - about twenty of them have already gathered and are running about and playing: the swings and see-saws are all in full use. The headmaster is already there, enthusiastically participating in their games. He engages them in singing, hearing stories and playing. He takes Krishna into his room. It is thatch-roofed. The floor is uneven and cool, and the whole place smells of “Mother Garth”. It is a pleasing smell that takes Krishna back “to some primeval simplicity, intimately bound up with earth and mud and dust”. Along the wall is a sort of running ledge covered with “a crazy variety of objects: cardboard houses, paper flowers, clumsy drawings and beadwork”. These are the work of children “the trophies of the school”, the
22. headmaster explains. Then he shows to Krishna the first creation of his child - a green boat. Krishna is thrilled. There are not tables and chairs. The headmaster considers children “the real gods on earth” and expounds his philosophy of education to Krishna: This will do for a school.... most of our time being spent outside, under the tree... The main business of an educational institution is to shape the mind and character and of course games have their value (Narayan: ). He is against much time being devoted to sports and games. He is a firm believer in “the simplicity of human conduct” which the company of children has taught him. That explains why he cannot get along With adults. He actively involves the children in his story telling session and promises to get a cat for Leela when she insists on it. Krishna invites him home for a meal before they proceed to the headmaster’s house in Anderson Lane. After he has washes himself, the headmaster does not require a towel to dry himself. He keeps standing till the water evaporates before sitting down for the meal. Leela is delighted to have her teacher’s company. Then they proceed to Anderson Lane where the headmaster lives. It is a neglected part of the town full of dust, dirt and grime. The headmaster’s wife turns out to be a virago and his three children are uncouth and wild. She starts quarrelling with him and doesn’t stop even when he asks her not to “speak rubbish” in the presence of “a cultured visitor who will laugh at us”. There is no cat to be found in the house and a disappointed Leela returns home with Krishna and the headmaster. After seeing the headmaster’s wife, Krishna wonders, “Why people marry such wives?” The headmaster explains his wife’s behaviour to Krishna. He wanted to remain a bachelor to pursue his interests in life without any encumbrances but he was married against his will. Then he refused to pursue law after graduation and take up a regular job. So he opened this school for children. Paradoxically, his own children do not attend his school. “I could sooner get the Emperor’s children. My school is for all the children except my own,” he tells Krishna. So he finally, his wife is bitter because he refuses to enter into litigation with his
23. stepmother and her children over his deceased father’s property. But he sticks on to her because he is convinced that “we should not despair for even the worst on earth”. The headmaster firmly believes in an astrologer’s predictions about his future. So far, he tells Krishna, his life has gone precisely according to what the astrologer had told him. The astrologer has given the precise date and time of his death, which the headmaster is convinced will turn out to be true. So one night, while Krishna is getting ready to communicate with the spirit of his dead wife Susila, the headmaster comes and tells him that this is the last night of his existence on earth and that he wouldn’t live to see the light of the next day. Deeply disturbed, Krishna assures him that there is nothing wrong with him and that he should not think of death. But the headmaster is adamant. He leaves Krishna to spend the last night of his life with his wife and children. The next morning Krishna goes to his house to enquire about him and is surprised to find out that the headmaster has not been home at night. When he informs his wife of her husband’s death, she lets out a wail and people crowd the house. She collapses on the floor and laments that her children have become fatherless orphans. But the headmaster appears near the school gate as Krishna is returning home. First, he thinks that he has seen a ghost but later he is happy to see the headmaster alive. He tells Krishna that the prediction about his death has been “weighing” him down all these years but now he can live “free and happy”. Krishna persuades him to go home to his wife and children. He is surprised to see a crowd of people offering condolences to his wife and comments: I never imagined that I had such a large public! I thought I was fairly obscure!. But the headmaster refuses to live with his wife and children now. He tells them that they should give him up as dead from now onwards. He will give them a monthly allowance but they should never try to see him again. He now wants to devote all his time and energy to look after his pet project, the school for small children. His wife and children, however, visit him often. He
24. treats them kindly but refuses to visit them home, and strictly forbids them to call him father or husband. His wife is a chastened person now. She begs him to allow her to bring him food but he firmly declines the offer. Contact with the headmaster has a profound influence on Krishna. He feels that his real calling lies not in pursuing his monotonous, dull and dreary job at Albert Mission College but elsewhere. He resigns and joins the headmaster’s expanding school at a quarter of the salary he was getting in college to seek inner satisfaction. His dead wife’s spirit guides him in this and, under these twin influences, Krishna attains peace of mind. Dr. Shankar Dr. Shankar Krishna’s wife Susila falls sick when she locks herself in a filthy lavatory in the house they have gone to inspect in Lawley Extension. Her fever does not go down and she keeps lying on the floor all the time. Food is distasteful to her. It is then that the old lady working in Krishna’s house suggests that a doctor be consulted to treat her. At this stage we are introduced to Dr. Shankar of Krishna Medical Hall in Malgudi. But despite his reputation as “the greatest physician on earth” and “easily the most successful practitioner in the town”, Dr. Shankar fails to cure Susila and she dies an untimely death. When Krishna reaches the doctor’s clinic, he is away but all around the benches and chairs are filled with patients and patients’ relatives. An accountant and a clerk sit next to each other at the entrance pouring over leather-bound ledgers and making entries. The walls of the clinic are lined with glass shelves loaded with the panacea that drug manufacturers invent - attractive boxes, cellophane wrappings. Bitter drugs are a thing of the past. A dispenser is distributing medicines to patients, issuing instructions and charging them money. He answers the patients’ questions in a routine manner but some of the patients are keen to consult the doctor himself and tell him in detail about their ailments. The doctor’s car stops and he steps out. Everyone presses around him. He looks
25. like a film star being mobbed by his admirers. He waves his hand, smiles and gently presses all his admirers to their seats. When his turn comes, Krishna tells the doctor about his Wife’s condition. Calling him “professor”, Dr. Shankar writes down a prescription for his wife and puts it away for the dispenser. Then he starts attending to another patient who gives him a long-minded account of pain in the back of the head which travels all the way down to his ankle and then goes up again. The doctor hardly gives attention to him. He cracks a couple of jokes at the expense of the patient and writes down a prescription for him. Krishna is disappointed with the mechanical red tape method and returns home with the medicine for Susila. Dr. Shankar appears as a mere “automaton” to him. But when Susila’s fever doesn’t come down and Krishna wants the doctor to visit her at home, he confidently tells Krishna: Oh no, it is just malaria. I have fifty cases like this on hand, no need to see her . When, however, Krishna insists, Dr. Shankar condescends to examine Susila at home. There he seems to be an old friend amiable and cheerful. He tells Susila: Many people take it as an opportunity for a holiday…... Although his visit cheers Susila it does not in any way help cure her. Then he decides to conduct a blood test and he revises his earlier diagnosis to typhoid. He assures Krishna that it is a mild attack and prescribes new medicines along with issuing instructions for looking after the patient. He is now certain that he can cure Susila. Malaria, according to him, is the most critical and temperamental thing on earth. He seems glad that it is typhoid, the king among fevers - it is an aristocrat who observes the rules of the game. He is confident that Susila will back on her feet after typhoid has run its course. Susila’s room is turned into a sick ward with Krishna and his father-in- law alternately keeping vigil over the patient. Dr. Shankar’s visits, though regular, are of no help. To cheer up Susila he narrates the humorous story of a daughter-in-law of a family who was in bed for
26. two weeks during which she had put on weight. Her husband came to the doctor privately and requests him to cure his wife as early as possible. On hearing this story, Susila laughs so much that her face becomes red and she breaks into sweat. As Susila’s condition deteriorates, Dr. Shankar brings a reputed, Madras physician to elicit a second opinion but to no avail. Dr. Shankar eventually gives up hope. Narayan has very skillfully portrayed each and every character in this novel. All characters perform the leading role to get the desired effect of readers. Through these characters the novel enlivens the readers fully. The Autobiographical Elements The English Teacher is an autobiographical piece of Narayan in which he says that: Krishna is a fictional character in the fictional city of Malgudi, but he goes through the same experience I had gone through and he calls his wife Susila, and the child is Leela instead of Hema. The toll of that typhoid and the desolation that followed with a child to look after and psychic adjustment, are based on my own experience (Narayan: 2006, 153). The English Teacher is thus an essentially autobiographical novel and Narayan can justifiably claim as,The English Teacher may be said to be a fictional autobiography of Narayan’s own life. The most momentous event in Narayan’s life occurred in 1933 when he went to Coimbatore and fell headlong in love with a girl drawing water from a street tap. It was lucky for him that the girl was not already married and belonged not only to the Brahmin caste but the Iyer sub-caste. Contrary to custom, negotiations were set in motion from the boy’s side - but, alas, when horoscopes were scrutinized they did not match. Narayan was not going to be put off by this. The services of another astrologer were requisitioned, and he overruled that the planets were not malefic and that the marriage would prove successful. Within five years Narayan lost his wife in the tragic manner set forth in The English Teacher, and the first
27. astrologer was proved right. This terrible experience left its indelible mark on Narayan. He never married again and, as an author was to return to theme of star-crossed lovers. Not only in The English Teacher, where it dealt with it? at length, but also in The Bachelor of Arts and two of his short stories, The White Flower and The Seventh House where frustrated love provides the topic and frustration is caused by horoscopes that don’t agree. The rest of Narayan’s story is easily told. It took him a while to recover from his wife’s death, but his little daughter Hema occupied his thoughts and tethered him to life. In The English Teacher, Krishna makes no secret of his delight in his daughter Leela. He loves and looks after Leela just as Narayan loved and looked after his only daughter Hema. Krishna is as loving and protective a father as the novelist himself. Krishna writes of his father that he was generous of heart who offered him money to buy a house of his own. In real life, however, it was his father-in-law who offered him money for purchasing the house. Narayan thus sifts and selects material from his own life in the novel. He describes in detail about the house-purchasing episode, the search and selection of the house, Susila’s entry into a filthy lavatory and of her being locked in there, her pounding at the shut door, her screaming, her repulsion at what happened inside, her subsequent refusal to eat anything and then her illness. This is really what happened to Narayan’s own wife Rajam. Narayan also writes of his father’s continued illness and his dependence on his wife. His mother could not often visit him because she had to look after her sick husband. He speaks of his mother’s passion for housekeeping. He speaks of the love for his daughter and how he did not allow his father-in-law to take the child with him after his wife’s death. He loves her so much that he does not even allow his mother takes her to the village. He feels guilty and repentant that he is unable to spend much time with the child. Narayan judiciously organises the material at his disposal. But
28. The English Teacher is, above all, an imaginative and emotional transcription of Narayan’s immense love for his wife and her sudden and premature death. The novel almost their love story of the author’s love for his wife to a sublime level. Like Narayan, Krishna is dazed when Susila dies. He is so desolate that he thinks of ending his own life. He thinks of a thousand ways of committing suicide. And but for the intense love of his daughter he would have committed suicide. Narayan himself was so disillusioned and desolate that, after Rajam’s death, he stopped writing for a long time. He resumed writing only when he was persuaded and inspired to do so by his two friends; Dr. Paul Brunton and the novelist Graham Greene. Krishna in the novel, stops writing poetry but he also resigns his well-paid job at Albert Mission College. Like Narayan, he doesn’t marry again though he is still young. Narayan became a mystic after Rajam’s death, practised psychic art and communicated with his wife. So does Krishna who communicates with Susila’s spirit, first through the medium and then on his own after he has developed his “sensibilities”. Rightly does William Walsh call The English Teacher “a personal tragedy”. Narayan also acknowledges the fact: More than any other book, The English Teacher is autobiographical in content, very little part of it being fiction (Narayan: 2006, 150). The English Teacher is thus “largely an autobiography in disguise”. No doubt in many ways the novel touches us, moves us and overwhelms us with tragic pathos. Like Hardy killed Tess, Narayan kills Susila. He had to kill her somehow because he was recounting his own experience after Rajam’s death. Susila must die because Rajam died. The Theme of Love The English Teacher, dedicated to R.K. Narayan’s wife Rajam, is not only autobiographical but also poignant in its intensity of feeling. The tragic love story is a series of experiences in the life of Krishna, an English teacher,
29. and his quest towards achieving inner peace and self-development after the untimely death of his wife Susila. For several years Krishna has enjoyed a bachelor’s life, but this changes when his wife Susila and their child Leela move in with him. Krishna’s life expands to include the happy domesticity of living with his child and wife: nearly half the novel focuses on the mundane joy of his day-to-day experiences with his family. However, one day Susila contracts typhoid after visiting a dirty lavatory and dies from the illness. Krishna is devastated by her loss but receives a letter from a stranger indicating that Susila has been in contact with him and wishes to communicate with Krishna. This leads to Krishna’s journey for self-enlightenment, with the stranger acting as a medium to Susila in the spiritual world and eventually learning to communicate with her on his own, thus concluding the entire story itself, with the quote that he felt a moment of rare, immutable joy - a moment for which one feels grateful to Life and Death. Krishna thus undertakes an emotional, intellectual and spiritual journey to come to terms with the irreparable loss. The English Teacher is the tale of love; the saga of loving someone so dearly. It is exclusively a love story but interestingly different from the love stories one reads. By a love story traditionally we mean the love before marriage which consequently ends, or may not end in marriage. But here we have the love story which starts when Krishna is already a married man and Susila already a mother. There is not much physical passion in the Krishna-Susila relationship. Nor is there much romance in it. They have decided not to have any more children and when Krishna talks about it, Susila covers his mouth and asks him: Where is your promise?... I often reiterated and confirmed our solemn pact that Leela should be our only child. Krishna sometimes becomes romantic, for instance when he is going with his wife in search of a house. But Susila asks him to control himself because they are walking on a public place. Their love is fresh because
30. it is not staled by familiarity. There is always the first flush of love in their short lived companionship. Susila does not express her love openly but she is frank, open-hearted and sprightly behaviour when she says: Why can’t each keep his or her own heart instead of this exchange? She then put out her hand and searched my pockets ‘in case you have taken away mine. Her love for Krishna is expressed by the tears she sheds when he loses her temper after learning that she has sold his old alarm clock as well as useless papers. They do not talk for forty-eight hours, each of them sulking separately. But when Krishna makes the first move towards making up, she immediately agrees. They decide not to have any more arguments, since as Susila says that such quarrels can affect the child. On his part, Krishna is concerned about his wife. This is evident from his anxiety when he paces up and down the Malgudi railway station awaiting her arrival. He pays the coolie thrice his portage so that he may take precaution in unloading her luggage from the train which stops there for only seven minutes. He worries unnecessarily and ceaselessly about her as Narayan depicts: Suppose fifteen days hence I was still in this state and they arrived and had nowhere to go outside the railway station! This vision, was a nightmare to me. When she likes the coloured marble tiles in Bombay Ananda Bhavan, he offers to have them on the walls of their own house even though he knows that they are normally used in bathrooms. When he becomes rich and famous through writing poetry, he plans to take h. on a trip to Europe. And when she falls ill, he keeps nightly vigil her bedside to see that she is not uncomfortable and that she sleeps He leaves no stone unturned to treat her but, alas, all his efforts come to nought when she dies. Krishna is distraught. He feels dumb, blind, and dazed. He is so miserable that he loses all interest in life. Only the thought of the child keeps him away from committing suicide. But the story does not end there. Indeed we are just halfway through. Death is not, need not be, the end of life.
31. Contracts can be established beyond the funeral pyre with a little patience. Krishna is rejuvenated when a stranger offers to act as the medium between him and his wife’s spirit. When he is able to do so, first though the medium and later on his own, he feels reassured when the medium informs him: The lady wants to say that she is deeply devoted to her husband and the child and family as ever. Ultimately she comes and sits on Krishna’s bed, looking at him with her bewitching smile, and tells him: Yes, I’m here, I have always been here. Krishna’s zest for life is renewed and he goes about his work. His “sensibilities” are improved through contact with his dead wife’s spirit which urges him to be cheerful and relaxed. Eventually to satisfy hit inner urge, Krishna gives up his well-paid college job. Further, at a quarter of the salary that he was getting in a college, he joins the headmaster’s school for small children. Finally, he comes to terms with life when his daughter Leela leaves for the village with her grandmother and he realises the fact of life. The headmaster’s company gives him solace. After his near-death experience, the headmaster has distanced himself from his wife and children. This has a profound impact on Krishna who, besides enjoying his newfound vocation now, is at peace with himself in the company of Susila’s spirit. It is a moment of rare, immutable joy - a moment for which one feels grateful to “Life and Death”. This is how his love story culminates in a strange, happy ending. Narayan obviously believes that nothing is impossible for true love. The novel, for all the searing tragedy of the death of Susila, ends on a note of fulfilment. Narayan has effectively put the element of love in the present novel. The Elements of Humour and Pathos Humour and pathos are the integral parts of Narayan’s work. Narayan’s earlier novels like Swami and Friends and The Bachelor of Arts are mainly comic. In his third novel, The English Teacher, there is a judicious blend of comedy and pathos because it is based on a personal tragedy. Here the humour
32. mingles with pathos, and there is, almost a Shakespearean inter-penetration of the comic and the tragic in the novel. Here we have the humour of character, humour of situation or farcical humour, irony wit and satire. For instance, Mr. Brown, the Principal of Albert Mission College, is concerned with the dropping of the vowel “u” in spelling “honours” by students. He believes that it would a serious enough blunder even for a mathematics honours man. Gopal, the mathematics teacher, is the butt of Narayan’s humour when Krishna says: His precise, literal brain refused to move where it had no concrete facts or figures to trip. Symbols, if they entered his brain at all, entered only as mathematical symbols. Krishna’s old table clock shows the correct time but is eccentric to its alarm arrangement. It lets out a “shattering amount of noise” and sometimes goes off by itself and butts into a conversation. Narayan writes: There was no way of stopping it... short of dashing it down ... But one day I learnt... that if I placed a heavy book like Taine’s History of English Literature on its crest, it stopped shrieking (Narayan: ). No wonder, Susila sells it when it starts ringing on its own when the child is asleep. This leads to their first serious quarrel after marriage because Krishna is attached to it. Then Krishna comments on his wife’s habit of underlining the town three times in her letter to him as she seemed to be anxious lest the letter should go off to some other town. Later when he does not care to explain the contents of a poem to her, Susila remarks: Perhaps you don’t care to explain English unless you are paid a hundred rupees a month for it. When Krishna tells Susila that the coloured marble tiles used on the walls of Bombay Ananda Bhavan are used in bathrooms but he will have them fitted along the walls of the house they are going to buy, Susila says: So that you may call it a bathroom.
33. The sick Susila’s sides ache with laughter when Dr. Shankar relates the anecdote of a sick daughter-in-law to cheer her: Her (the ailing daughter-in- law’s) husband came to him privately and said, ‘Doctor, please keep her in bed for a fortnight more. It is almost her only chance of being free from the harassment of her mother-in-law’. Krishna’s account of the travelling pain is equally humorous: Last night, the other began and gave a long-winded account of a pain in the back of his head, which travelled all the way down to his ankle and went up again. The boy who accompanies him to the old, half-blind landlord is described thus: He had his pockets filled with fried nuts, and was ceaselessly transferring them to his mouth. And then: If I hear that you have broken any leg, I will break your head,” says the old peon Singaram to “the creaking cart driver” when he is putting Krishna’s luggage in the cart. Krishna’s childhood recollection of his elder brother is tinged with irony: My elder brother would extract obedience and we would have to take our seats in the cart according to his directions. The way he handled us we always expected he would become a commander of an army or a police officer, but the poor fellow settled as auditor in Hyderabad and was nose-bed by his wife. Krishna wonders how his colleague at college, Sastri, a logic’ teacher, has got into the building of houses. He is rather rude when he asks him: Oh, Sastri, how did this house-salesmanship get into your blood instead of logic?. Then he comments: He had taken upon himself this task for scores of people, and some uncharitable ones remarked that he made a better living out of this than as a logic lecturer. Dr. Shankar, otherwise, a cheerful person, becomes “an automaton” once he sits in his “official seat”. The headmaster’s wife sounds bitter when he returns home with Krishna and Leela after dinner: “So you have found your way home after all.” When she continues her tirade the headmaster
34. says: I can’t bring a gentlemen to visit me without driving him away with your fine behaviour. Along with such abundant use of humour and irony in the novel, Narayan does not miss a chance to have a dig at his surroundings. For example, he speaks of the hostel of Albert Mission College thus: “Hostel bathrooms are hell on earth... [God said to his assistants, ‘Take this man away to hell’, and they brought him down to the hostel bathroom passage, and God said, ‘torture him’, and they opened the room and pushed him in... No, no, at this moment the angels said ‘the room is engaged’... God waited as long as a god can wait and asked ‘Have you finished’ and they replied ‘still engaged’, and in due course they could not see where their victim* was, for grass had grown and covered him up completely while he waited outside the bathroom door... . Krishna has a similar experience waiting outside the bathroom’ door in his hostel while a student is busy singing inside. When at last the student comes out and apologises to Krishna for having made him wait, Krishna replies: Yes, my dear fellow, but how could you come; out before finishing that masterpiece of a Narayan feels that railway carriages are not safe for mothers carrying small children when they are travelling. So he makes Krishna say when Susila arrives in Malgudi with the child: This seemed to my fevered imagination the all-important thing to say on arrival, as I otherwise fancied the child’s head was sure to be banged against the doorway... And how many infants were damaged and destroyed by careless mothers in the process of coming out of trains! Why couldn’t they make these railway carriages of safer dimensions? It ought to be done in the interests of baby welfare in India. Then, there is the habit of women travelling with a lot of luggage. As Narayan writes: Women never understood the importance of travelling light.
35. Why should they? As long as there were men to bear all the anxieties and bother and see them through their travails! It would teach, them a lesson to be left to shift for themselves. When she sets up home, Susila, like her mother-in-law, does not trust the government measures. She is convinced that they weightless; so she uses her own measure. As Narayan puts: She had a bronze tumbler, which she always declared as a correct half-measure, and she would never recognise other standards and measures. She insisted upon making all her purchases... with the aid of this measure, and declared that all other measures, including the government-stamped ones, were incorrect, and were kept maliciously incorrect because some municipal members were businessmen!. Narayan’s scathing criticism, however, is reserved for the municipality of Malgudi about whom he says: Malgudi had earned notoriety for its municipal affairs. The management was in the hands of a council with a president, a vice-president, and ten elected members; they met on the last Saturday of every month and battled against each other. One constantly read of disputed elections, walk-outs, and no confidence motions. Otherwise they seemed to do little by way of municipal work. There are also some quacks dispensing medicines “under no known system” in Malgudi. The headmaster’s remarks on the prevailing system of education in the country are as valid today as they were when the novel was written. He tells Krishna that they are poor country man and they do not have luxury of life. They want only water, food and open air. This is not a cold country for the heavy furniture and elaborate buildings. He is against the undue importance given to sports and games. Humour interpenetrates tragedy when Susila falls ill and eventually dies of wrong diagnoses when malaria that she is supposed to suffer from turns out to be typhoid. Her room is turned into a sick ward and Krishna congratulates himself on how meticulously he has done it and with what precision he goes
36. about his nursing duties. The underlying pathos behind all this is unmistakable. It is pathetic that the lovely and sprightly Susila is now called a “patient” throughout her illness; no one refers to her real name. When Krishna gets a letter from his elder brother enquiring after Susila’s health, his childhood memories are tinged with pathos: Good fellow - I remember the bullying he had practised me in the cart... remember him helplessly pacing up and down when his wife and mother had heated arguments over trifles and now auditing, henpecked, and with twelve children - a life of worry-so good of him to have thought of me in all this distress. Susila’s death leaves Krishna blind, dumb, and dazed. He is unhinged physically, mentally and spiritually. As Susila’s dead body lies on the ground: We mutter, talk among ourselves, and wail between convulsions of grief. All sensations are blurred and vague…. as he accompanies the bier to the cremation ground across the river. With Susila gone, Krishna loses his zest for life; he is miserable and contemplates suicide. But the thought of the child prevents him from taking this extreme step. It is only when a letter from a stronger arrives and he is able to communicate with his dead wife’s spirit that he finds his moorings. Whenever he cannot communicate with her, he feels miserable. Finally, when Leela goes to the village with her grandmother, Krishna realises that no one can escape from the loneliness and separation i.e. from wife, husband, child, brothers, parents etc. One day we all have to separate from all the family members. Loneliness and separation are the continuous movements of the life. No one can stop it. No one can break the law of life and no one can battle against it. Krishna attains mental peace at last. He resigns from his well-paid college job and takes up work in the headmaster’s school at a quarter of his present salary in order to satisfy his inner urge. Susila’s spirit is present with him and he has found a purpose in life. It is “a moment of rare, immutable joy - a moment for which
37. one feels grateful to Life and Death”. Thus, humour and pathos are woven in the works of Narayan. With the elements of humour and pathos his works have become so famous not only in India but also on the foreign land. Thus, the present novel The English Teacher is an autobiographical and most acclaimed novel of Narayan. In this novel he has effectively and artistically inserted all the literary elements like love theme, autobiographical elements, humour, pathos, irony, tragedy etc. Krishna is an immortal character of the novel. Through the characters he expresses his views on education and philosophy of life. THE ENGLISH TEACHER - R.K.NARAYAN One and two marks questions. Chapter - IV 1. Why Krishna's mother didn't stay with him after Sushila's death? Krishna father was not well. He was unable to manage the things alone so she went back to village. 2. What is name of Krishna's village? Kamalapuram. 3. What are the instructions given by mother to Krishna before going to village? She told to take care of Leela properly, and advised to give oil bath to Leela on every Friday. 4. What is the name of Krishna’s mother? Kamala 5. What was the advice given by a lady in bus stop to Krishna? She said a man must marry within fifteen days of losing his wife. Otherwise he will be ruined. Even she told she is fourth wife to his husband. 6. Why Krishna didn't change the house after his wife's death? Krishna has connected himself with the memories of Sushila. So he didn't change the house. 7. How Krishna convinced Leela about closed door of her mother room? Leela asked why the room was closed, for that Krishna told she was taken rest or taking bath. She used ask her father why you are not looking after her. For that he
38. told the nurse is looking after her. Finally Leela came to know that her mother is not inside at that he told she has been taken to hospital for treatment. 8. How did Krishna used to tell stories to Leela? Krishna used to connect all the names in the book and manage to make a story. But every time it's different one. Which is usually caught by Leela and she tells you are telling wrong story. Chapter V 1. Which class Krishna didn't want to take? Krishna didn't like to take class of History of English Language. 2. How did Krishna finished the language class? He sent a boy to bring a book from the library. He started reading the essay. He didn't bother weather students are listening to him or not, just went on reading. He was eagerly waiting for college bell sound. 3. What is content of the letter brought by a boy to Krishna? The letter had the message from Krishna's dead wife Sushila. The wanted to communicate with her husband and she has chosen a man as the medium to communicate. 4. Who was medium? He was middle aged farmer with chubby and cheerful look. 5. How was the house of mediator? It's like a green heaven, full of trees, shrubs and orchard. There was a lotus pond and on its bank there was a temple of goddess Sankara. 6. How the farmer has become medium? Once he has gone out for walk as he daily he goes. At that time he had strong sense to bring paper and pencil with him. Next day he carried. He thought he will write poetry. But he sat near the shrine in the temple he started writing. He doesn't know what he has written. After he saw that it was addressed to Krishna. 7 Which day is selected to communicate with spirit? Wednesday 8. How the climates change at the time of arrival of spirit? They come at the time of dusk. The casuarinas tree hushed the sound Ripples. The bright star appeared in the sky. There was eternal peace. 9. What happened in the first meet of communication? In the first meet Sushila was unable to communicate. Other group of spirit communicated on the behalf of Sushila 10. Why Krishna didn't believe completely in the existence of his wife as spirit? Because she told her daughter name as Radar
39. 11. Which language did Sushila's spirit use for communication? Tamil 12. What did Sushila remind Krishna to search for? Sushila told Krishna to search for sandal wood casket or ivory box and fourteen letters. 13. What did Sushila tell about Leela? She tells Krishna not to worry too much about Leela. She is perfectly happy and spends her time playing with her friend. Old lady take care of her. Leela comes to door to look for her father only at evening. Also tell that Leela is going to school. 14. What did Leela tell about the school? She told she likes the school very much. She had made clay of brinjal. And told she has made friends in the school. 15. Where did Sushila bring skirts to Leela on her birthday? Bombay Cloth Emporium. 16. How is Leela's school? Its wall is full of alphabets and pictures drawn by the students. There are no proper class rooms. The ground is full of seesaws, swings, heap of sands and ladder. There was a garden made by students and they are playing and enjoying. Krishna felt that is meaning of the word joy in its purest sense 17. How was headmaster? He is different man. He doesn't like to take rest even on Sunday. He has not taken holiday from ten to fifteen years. 18. Why Krishna was disappointed with communication with spirit. ? Because she was not telling the things properly. She didn't tell what happened in the 19. Who has sent scent to Sushila from Rangoon? Her sister 20. How do spirits spend their time? They don't have physical body. They spend most of their time in mediation. They give much importance to music. They believe music can directly transport their feelings. They can wear whatever they want just by wishing them. 21. What is the idea given by Sushila to test her presence? She told Krishna to keep about ten jasmine flowers near to pillow and she will take the scent of those flowers 22. When did Krishna feel Sushila'a presence for the first time? Krishna was returning from the house of mediator. He was passing through Nallappa Grove at the graveyard. At that he felt he is not alone. Someone else is walking with him. Chapter-VI
40. 1. What did students do on Sunday in the Leela's school? On that day they students just play, sing and hear stories. That day they don't study. 2. How was Headmaster's room? It was thatch roofed. Its floor was covered with clay. The walls were of bamboo filled with mud. Room was full of cardboard houses, paper flowers, drawings and trophies of the 3. What was the first work done by Leela in school? Leela has made green paper boat in the school. 4. What is the true principle of education according to Headmaster? The main business of education is to shape the mind and character. 5. What is Headmaster's opinion about sports? Headmaster didn't like giving much importance to game. He it has its own value but he didn't like treating sports as worship and treating player as stars. He didn't like the liberty given to those students such as giving party and made them to pass examination. 6. How was the story told by Headmaster? Headmaster told story in very lively way. The story didn't remain in the book. It comes in to reality. He makes all the students to involve in the story. 7. Which story did Headmaster tell to students? He told the story of tiger whose name is Raja and his friend buffalo whose name is 8. What are the habits of Headmaster? He used to have bath before lunch. He didn't use towel after bath. He usually pray and meditate for fifteen minutes before lunch. He always sits on the floor. He didn't eat brinjals. 9. How was Anderson Lane? It was the dirtiest place. It was never cleaned by municipality. It cleaned by rain only rainy season. It was full of scraps, garbage, egg shells and other left out things. 10. How was Malagudi municipality? It was known for notoriousness. It’s in the hands of management with council, president and vice president. They meet last Saturday of every month but every meeting end up with dispute. 11. How was Headmaster house? It was not clear and tidy, full of old furniture. There was a Japanese mat in the hall. 12. How was headmaster family? His wife about 35 years old. Very arrogant lady didn't answer anything directly and didn't care for others. Headmaster had 3 sons between ages of 7 to 10. They are also untidy and didn't care for father. 13. Why Krishana and Leela went to Headmaster house? To bring kitten or cat.
41. Chapter-VII 1. Why Krishna was unable to communicate with Sushila's spirit? Because the mediator has gone to Trichinoploy on urgent business. 2. What was the advice given by Brown to improve the results of final year student? To take special classes for them 3. Why did Krishna scold the student in the class? Krishna was upset because he was unable to communicate with Sushila at that he has engaged class unwillingly at that a student asked a question so he got angry. 4. What was the suggestion given by mediator to Krishna by letter? Mediator wrote letter to Krishna by telling he connect himself with the communication. He suggested Krishna to experiment that on Sunday 4 O'clock at evening. 5. What was suggestion given by Sushila spirit to Krishna ? It suggested him to try to communicate with sprit directly and advised him to keep body and mind in perfect condition. 6. Why did the Headmaster come to Krishna at night? He came to told Krishna that he is going to die on that day. Therefore he requested Krishna to take the responsibility of his school. 7. Who told the Headmaster about his death? An astrologer who was not professional predictor but a hermit. 8. Why Headmaster wife was unhappy with him? She wanted her husband to claim their property in the Lawaly extension. But Headmaster was not interested in the property so she was unhappy with him. 9. What kind life was led by Headmaster when he didn't die? Krishna took him back to home forcibly. There Headmaster announced that he is entering into Sanyas Ashram and said that he will give monthly allowance to his family. He said his wife and children to not consider him as husband and father. He started living in school happily. 10. How did Krishna find the sandal wood box mentioned by Sushila? Krishna's mother has come to meet them at that she has brought a gold chain for Leela. She has kept that gold chain in that sandal wood box . 11. Why Krishna felt Leela needs motherly care? Krishna used to take care of his daughter properly. But she was very happy with her grandmother. She has become more charming and beautiful in her nursing. She always attached with her granny. This made him to think that she needs motherly care. 12. What was the content of letters to Krishna? Krishna received letter from his father and daughter. Both convey that Leela was very happy in the village. If wished to see her. He has to village.
42. Chapter VIII 1. Why Krishna wanted to resign his job? Krishna was against the system of education and methods of approach. He was not interested in teaching history of languages, literature other analysis of critical theories. He felt is other's culture and feeling them in the mind our students is like felling their mind with garbage. More over it make the students stranger to our own culture. So he decided to resign. 2. What is Krishna's opinion about literature? According to Krishna every person is sensible to literature. Shakespeare's sonnets, Ode to West Wind and line like ' a thing of beauty is joy for ever ' always delight the mind. 3. How was Krishna's resignation letter for the first time? His first resignation letter runs for pages. It was like an article on Problems of Higher 4. What Krishna wrote in resignation letter for the second time? For the second time Krishna wrote just lines and told that he was resigning the job for personal reasons. 5. How much time did Brown gave Krishna to rethink over his decision? One week time. 6. How was send off party? The send off party was very grand. It was full of luxuries. Both students and teachers gathered there. They all talked appreciative words for him and told they need more and more good teacher like him. 7. Why suddenly Krishna has become hero? Krishna has become hero suddenly because he has left job 100 Rs per month and joined the job of 25Rs just because it gives him satisfaction. It has made him respectful person and inspiring personality. 8. What happened at the night of send off party? In the college Krishan was honoured with jasmine garland. He brought it home and was thinking of Sushila. That day his mind was free from thoughts. At that time Sushila appeared to him talked to him till the dawn. One mark and two marks questions 1. Whose books Krishna read for fiftieth time? Ans: Milton, Carlyle and Shakespeare. 2. Where did Krishna work? Ans: He worked in Albert Mission College. 3. What was the salary paid to Krishna? Ans: One hundred rupees per month.
43. 4. Who was the principal (head) of the Albert Mission College? Ans: Mr. Brown. 5. Who was the assistant professor of English? Ans: Gajapathy. 6. Who spoke on the importance of English and the need for preserving its purity? Ans: Mr. Brown. 7. Name two colleagues of Krishna? Ans: Rangappa, Gajapati, Gopal. 8. Who was as sharp as a knife in Mathematics? Ans: Gopal. 9. What did the English department solely exist for? Ans: For dotting the - i’s and crossing the - t’s. 10. What does ‘raining cat and dogs mean’? Ans: Strong wind, heavy and hard rain. 11. Who was the ever questioning philosopher? Ans: Rangappa. 12. Why did Krishna want to be up very early the next day? Ans: To see the sunrise and get some exercise before the work. 13. Where had Krishna brought the alarm clock from? Ans: Junk store in Madras. 14. When did the alarm clock stop shrieking? Ans: When a heavy book like ‘Taine’s History of English Literature’ was placed on its crest. 15. What was in heaps on Krishnan’s table? Ans: Books from libraries and friends, untouched and unanswered letters. 16. Who was Singaram? Ans: Hostel servant of 80 years 17. Which bath is real bath for a real man according to singaram? Ans: River bath. 18. Which poem did Krishna write and how many lines? Ans: Nature, Fifty lines. 19. What takes up most of teachers’ hours? Ans: Attendance. 20. Which is the vital portion of great tragedy King Lear?
44. Ans: Lear facing the storm. 21. Which hour is a sort of relaxation for teachers? Ans: The Composition hour. 22. Who had written two pages about a poem without understanding it? Ans: Ramaswami. 23. Which epigram Krishnan set for essay writing? Ans: “Man is the master of his own destiny”? 24. Who read the four days old news paper? Ans: Logic lecturer Sastri. 25. Who was the assistant professor of philosophy? Ans: Dr.Menon. 26. Where had Dr.Menon obtained his Ph.D ? Ans: Columbia University. 27. Who said the “American spelling is foolish buffoonery”? Ans: Gajapathy. 28. Where did Krishna’s brother work? Ans: He worked in Hyderabad as an auditor. 29. Who led her husband by nose? Ans: Krishna’s brother’s wife. 30. Who underlined the ‘town’ three times while writing letter? Ans: Susila. 31. Who was fastidious and precise in handling the English language? Ans: Krishna’s father. 32. Who was the B.A. of the olden days? Ans: Krishna’s father. 33. Which bathrooms are like hell on the earth? Ans: Hostel bathrooms. 34. Who was assistant professor in the Economics Department? Ans: Subharam. 35. What was a grand affair for Krishna’s mother? Ans: House-keeping. 36. How did Susila spend her time before marriage? Ans: Reading, knitting, embroidering or looking after a garden. 37. Whom did Krishna’s mother hates heartily?
45. Ans: Her eldest daughter-in-law. 38. Who said ‘I shall never accept a girl from High Court Judge’s family’? Ans: Krishna’s mother. 39. Which was a wonderful place for Krishna? Ans: Kavadi. 40. Who were the eminent professors of the Madras College? Ans: Dr. William Miller, Mark Hunter 41. What amount of rent Krishna had to pay for the house? Ans: Twenty five on the fifth of every month. 42. Why should be jasmine bush grown in a boys’ hostel? Ans: To remind that there are better things in the world. 43. Why did Krishna want a house facing south? Ans: It keeps the western sun out and gets the eastern in and admits northern light. 44. What are the conditions that are looked for in residential locality? Ans: Cheap houses, refined surroundings, near to the market and the office. 45. Who revered the college teachers? Ans: The old man. 46. Who said “Susila is a modest girl, she is not obstinate”? Ans: Krishna’s mother. 47. Who disliked the extravagance of travelling second class? Ans: Krishna’s father-in-law. 48. Which was the best shop in the town? Ans: The National Provision Stores (N.P.S). 49. Who never understand the importance of travelling alone? Ans: Women. 50. Who says man or woman is not born merely to cook and eat? Ans: Krishna. 51. Who was the cash-keeper in Krishna’s house? Ans: His wife Susila. 52. In whose hand a hundred rupees seemed to do the work of two hundred rupees. Ans: Susila. 53. Who is ‘Kamu’ in the novel? Ans: Krishna’s mother. 54. What salary was fixed to the old lady?
46. Ans: Six rupees per month. 55. What did Krishna fancy? Ans: He was born for a poetic career and some day he hoped to take the world by storm with the publication. 56. Who jostled each other in a struggle for existence? Ans: Milton, Shakespeare, Bradley 57. What did Susila read without Krishna’s help? Ans: The Tamil classics and Sanskrit texts. 58. Who was a ‘Phantom of Delight’ for Krishna? Ans: Susila 59. What price Susila got for the old clock? Ans: Twelve annas. 60. According to Sushila what affects a child’s health? Ans: Husband and wife quarrelling. 61. Who advanced money to Krishna to buy a new house? Ans: His father. 62. Where did Krishna and his wife go to choose a house? Ans: To Lawley Extension. 63. How do the soul and body laugh? Ans: The soul laughs through the eyes and body laughs with lips. 64. Where did Krishna and Susila take their morning tiffin? Ans: The Bombay Anand Bhavan. 65. Name the boy who serves Tiffin to Krishna and Susila? Ans: Mani, a youngster from Malabar. 66. Who had promised Krishna in choosing the house? Ans: Sastri, of the logic section. 67. What did Krishna call his wife? Ans: Jasmine. 68. Who blamed Krishna for living in a rented house? Ans: Sushila’s mother. 69. Who was the moving spirit of the new Lawley Extension? Ans: Dr. Sastri of the logic section. 70. Who was the secretary of the Building and Acquisition Society? Ans: Dr. Sastri of the logic section
47. 71. What name Krishna loved to give to the new home? Ans: Jasmine Home 72. What did the God Srinivas grant the visitors? Ans: He granted all theirs boons and blessed all their efforts. 73. Who never heard of buttermilk being given for fever? Ans: The old woman in Krishna’s house. 74. Who wrote encouraging letters to Krishna during Susila’s illness? Ans: His brother in Hyderabad, his sister at Vellore and the other sister at Delhi. 75. Who try to starve patients to death? Ans: The English doctors. 76. Who was convinced that an Evil Eye had fallen on her daughter? Ans: Susila’s mother. 77. What does the exorcist do to bring down the fever of Susila? Ans: He feels her pulse, utters some mantras with closed eyes, takes a pinch of sacred ash and rubs it on Susila’s forehead. He ties her arm a talisman strung in yellow thread. 78. Why did Susila not like the doctors? Ans: They pressed the stomach, and here and there. 79. Who, according to Rangappa, was the greatest physician on the earth? Ans: Dr.Shankar of the Krishna Medical Hall. 80. Which is the most erratic and temperamental disease on the earth? Ans: Malaria. 81. Which ailment is the king among the fevers? Ans: Typhoid. 82. Who said,” Never trust these English doctors”? Ans: The contractor. 83. Where did Krishna’s mother live? Ans: Kamalapuram. 84. Why was Krishna to take Fourth hour class? Ans: Because George of the language class was absent. 85. What was one aim in Krishna’s life after Susila’s death? Ans: To see that Leela did not feel the absence of her mother. 86. What seemed to be the greatest task for Krishna in life after Susila’s death? Ans: Living without illusions.
48. 87. What was the most welcome sound into the pandemonium -like class? Ans: The college bell. 88. Who brings a letter to Krishna? Ans: The village boy of fifteen years. 89. Why should we first wash and then read stories? Ans: We must never touch goddess Saraswati without washing. 90. Who built the goddess ‘Yak Matha’ temple by mere chanting? Ans: Sankara. 91. Through whom Susila communicated with Krishna? Ans: The Farmer 92. Who have been working to bridge the gulf between life and after life? Ans: A band or groupof spirits. 93. Who said children must not eat more than two sweets at a time? Ans: Krishna. 94. How many skirts and shirts Leela had? Ans: Over forty. 95. What did Susila urge Krishna on to look for at every sitting? Ans: Her sandalwood casket and the fourteen letters. 96. Why did the spirits need no exercise? Ans: Because they have no physical bodies. 97. What transports us directly? Ans: Music 98. What was the evidence of Susila’s visit to Krishna’s room after her death? Ans: Taking away the scent from the ten jasmine buds. 99. What had Leela made on her first day visit to the college? Ans: A green paper boat. 100. Who bring in a shield or cup? Ans: The eleven stalwart idiots. 101. What is the main business of an educational institution? Ans: To shape the mind and character 102. Who are made to pass the examinations? Ans: The sportsmen. 103. What was the name of the tiger in the Headmaster’s story? Ans: Raja.
49. 104. Who never used a towel for bath? Ans: The Headmaster. 105. Where was the house of the Headmaster? Ans: In Anderson Lane. 106. What had Malagudi earned notoriety for? Ans: Its municipal affairs. 107. Who was Anderson? Ans: Some gentleman of the East India Company. 108. What had children taught to the Headmaster? Ans: To speak plainly, without the varnish of the adult world. 109. Which was the dullest work read in English language by Krishna? Ans: Criticism of the Elizabethan dramatists, Beaumont and Fletcher. 110. Whose company is unfit for children? Ans: Adults’ company. 111. Which problem is crushing us all the time? Ans: The problem of living and dying. 112. Who is a nice fellow to have around never falls back? Ans: A dog. 113. How does Leela look? Ans: Like a miniature version of Susila 114. Which story the Head master narrates to the children in front of Krishna? Ans: The story of a ‘Bison and a Tiger’. 115. Who preferred poison to brinjal? Ans: The Headmaster. 116. What seemed real work to Krishna? Ans: Something which satisfied his innermost aspirations. 117. What is necessary for the complete communion? Ans: A degree of concentration and psychic development. 118. What did the Honours boy say about Krishna on the occasion of send off to Krishna? Ans: Our country needs more men like our beloved teacher who is going out today. 119. Who said ‘I mug up and repeat and they mug up and repeat in the examination? Ans: Krishna. 120. What did young minds need according to Krishna? Ans: They need lessons in the fullest use of the mind.
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