I
finished reading ‘The Guide’ by RK Narayan (ISBN 978-81-85986-07-4; Indian
thought Publications) today. It is one of the master pieces of RK Narayan. Of
late I have tried to read all of his books; and this one has made me nearer to
the goal. Though this story has been made into a very famous movie by the same
name enacted by Dev Anand, I have not watched it and hence I could enjoy this
book starting from truly unexplored status.
The
Guide is indeed a master piece. We can find the width and depth of storytelling
and minuteness of details as typical to RK Narayan and at the same time a
unique new story to mesmerize us. It is a biography of Raju who sees many
twists and turns. The book is written in a narrative style, as Raju is
recollecting his life story. Starting out as a Guide, called Railway Raju, he
falls in love with a lady dancer who is into an unhappy marriage with an
academician living in his own world. The lady’s love makes him ignore his
business of being a guide; his infatuation of watching her dance all the time
makes him lose his business of running a shop at the railway platform and in
order to fulfill all his debts, he loses his home that his father built and his
mother had to leave him and go back to her brother when Raju does not agree with
her to send away Rosie the dancer. Rosie at this point was very selfish, very
well knowing that Raju was losing everything due to their relationship. Raju
was so lost in his love with Rosie that he had to be woken up by Rosie who
encourages him to get ahead on their plan of seeing through her dancing career.
Supported by Raju, Rosie becomes one of the country’s top most classical dance
performers and they become very-very rich. But she remains married to her
previous husband who had deserted her and had no plans to take her back. Due to
this, she does not get married to Raju also, though even Raju does not think
about marriage, as if still lost in his fantasy world. He is obviously
possessive about her and becomes uncomfortable with the thought of she reuniting
with her husband. In the end, just to ensure that she does not see a letter
sent by her husband, which he feared may trigger her reconciliation with him,
he signs a legal document. Her husband, it seems does remember her and her
boyfriend Raju, and seeks a revenge. Raju loses the court battle and is jailed
for two years. At this point, Rosie shows insensitive and ungratefulness
towards Raju; not forgiving of little mistakes one may make but being too harsh
on him. At such points, the rigidness of social structure becomes too evident.
Society has made unwritten rules and those who break it feel guilty even if no
one blames them for it. Since Rosie was not married to Raju, in fact since she
was still married to her uncaring and insensitive husband, she still had soft
corner for her husband, which made her seek opportunity to reconcile with him,
even if possible only in her thoughts. I think it would have been proper if she
had filed for a divorce and married Raju legally many years ago, before becoming
a burden on Raju’s mother and reason of lots of gossip about their immoral
relationship (for which Raju had to suffer a lot and he lost social acceptance
when he was poor). When Raju is in jail, or perhaps when he comes out of it
too, Rosie never shows any sympathy towards him, which is inhuman. Perhaps she
never loved him but only needed him. On one hand one can ask how could she love
him when she was married to someone else? On the other hand, the fact that they
shared an intimate relationship, it was only fair if she remained unattached to
Raju if she never intended to see them as husband and wife together at some
point of time in future. So while on surface Raju can be blamed for a lot of
things, I think Rosie was also to be blamed for a lot of things. Her only
defense could be that she was helpless and clung to Raju for her survival. But
Raju never abused their relationship, never took grant of her and hurt her in
anyways, he truly loved her. On financial matters, he became too used to seeing
too much money coming in the house and hence did not do any self-check, which
often happens. That is a bad thing about money – initially you think you own
the money but later on money owns you. Until you have little money, you don’t
know what it is to be on the money trail, but once you are on that road, it is
a non-stop journey. It is like riding a tiger; you cannot get off from it for
the fear of being swallowed away. Blessed at the people who have only that much
they truly need; or have the courage to remain content with what they have.
In
the end Raju goes to a remote village where no one knows him. People happen to
take him as a saint and even this episode is so interesting to read.
How
much seriously humorous RK Narayan can be is seen in the following para. Raju
was a failure in earlier life but when he goes to the Jail, he is revered there.
And he says, “I was considered a model prisoner. Now I realized that people
generally thought of me as being unsound and worthless, not because I deserved
the label, but because they had been seeing me in the wrong place all along. To
appreciate me, they should really have come to the Central Jail and watched me.”
:)
It
is a marvelous book; full of geniuses of exceptionally brilliant story teller R
K Narayan.
