Yesterday I started reading The English Teacher by R.K. Narayan. The ingenuity and the touch of reality in Narayan's writing is touching in all his works and that is what appeals me the most.
The English Teacher, Krishna, lives in a hostel and wants to take a control of his life and his thoughts. He has been postponing things and never seems to have time for anything. His life is too disorganized and mismanaged.He is also engaged in a lot of self-criticism lately.He always had a sense of 'something missing'. He lives in the hostel of Albert Mission College away from his wife and baby girl child.He avoids responsibilities ,and it is evident from all what he does;postponing tasks, looking down at taking care of the family as a cumbersome and 'terrifying' job and so forth. He realizes that he has lost the control over his mind and the ability to shup off his senses at will when he keeps on speaking one day to himself even after the argument with his senior professor Gajapathy and the head Brown has long ended.
Somehow I feel that Krishna's life is really dull and boring and hasn't got any charm in it.And as his father says, he is wasting the best part of life in the hostel away from his family and it may affect his health and outlook.
Nevertheless, Krishna has the will to change his life and take it under his control and that is why he decides to take up the routine of getting up early in the morning and going to the bank of the river which is five yards away from his hostel and running ,exercising and bathing there(One of the many times when he promised himself that he would follow a routine).
Finally one day when he enters the room,he finds the two letters from his father and wife. Both asking him to settle with his family and take a house for himself. Krishna goes and searches for the house for four-five days without getting satisfied and mentally commenting in a funny sentence on each of the houses that he sees.Finally he gets a house according to his liking. Narayan has spoken through Krishna about the ideal house which he wants;"..which faces south,for its breeze,keeps out the western sun,gets in the eastern, and admits the due measure of northern light that artists so highly value".
We are amused to find so many of our tendencies like irresponsibility ,inability to shut off and the lost charm of life in the english teacher and at the same time, are amused to find such a humorous account of them presented by Narayan. He is a master in expressing the mind !
When Krishna goes to the river for the first time, he praises the beauty of nature, and i would like to share it here,"Nature,nature,all our poets repeat till they are hoarse.There are subtle,invisible emanations in nature's surroundings;with them the deepest in us merges and harmonizes.I think it is the highest form of joy and peace we can ever comprehend".
The beginning tells the reality of a day in the life of an English Teacher and I am highly touched. How a teacher is panicked when he enters the class without preparation and also how a teacher studies the same thing about Shakespeare and Milton again and again for years. Everything is so beautifully described !
The English Teacher, Krishna, lives in a hostel and wants to take a control of his life and his thoughts. He has been postponing things and never seems to have time for anything. His life is too disorganized and mismanaged.He is also engaged in a lot of self-criticism lately.He always had a sense of 'something missing'. He lives in the hostel of Albert Mission College away from his wife and baby girl child.He avoids responsibilities ,and it is evident from all what he does;postponing tasks, looking down at taking care of the family as a cumbersome and 'terrifying' job and so forth. He realizes that he has lost the control over his mind and the ability to shup off his senses at will when he keeps on speaking one day to himself even after the argument with his senior professor Gajapathy and the head Brown has long ended.
Somehow I feel that Krishna's life is really dull and boring and hasn't got any charm in it.And as his father says, he is wasting the best part of life in the hostel away from his family and it may affect his health and outlook.
Nevertheless, Krishna has the will to change his life and take it under his control and that is why he decides to take up the routine of getting up early in the morning and going to the bank of the river which is five yards away from his hostel and running ,exercising and bathing there(One of the many times when he promised himself that he would follow a routine).
Finally one day when he enters the room,he finds the two letters from his father and wife. Both asking him to settle with his family and take a house for himself. Krishna goes and searches for the house for four-five days without getting satisfied and mentally commenting in a funny sentence on each of the houses that he sees.Finally he gets a house according to his liking. Narayan has spoken through Krishna about the ideal house which he wants;"..which faces south,for its breeze,keeps out the western sun,gets in the eastern, and admits the due measure of northern light that artists so highly value".
We are amused to find so many of our tendencies like irresponsibility ,inability to shut off and the lost charm of life in the english teacher and at the same time, are amused to find such a humorous account of them presented by Narayan. He is a master in expressing the mind !
When Krishna goes to the river for the first time, he praises the beauty of nature, and i would like to share it here,"Nature,nature,all our poets repeat till they are hoarse.There are subtle,invisible emanations in nature's surroundings;with them the deepest in us merges and harmonizes.I think it is the highest form of joy and peace we can ever comprehend".
The beginning tells the reality of a day in the life of an English Teacher and I am highly touched. How a teacher is panicked when he enters the class without preparation and also how a teacher studies the same thing about Shakespeare and Milton again and again for years. Everything is so beautifully described !
