THE ENGLISH TEACHER - MY FAVOURITE NOVEL

The English Teacher is a 1945 novel written by R. K. Narayan which is one of my favourite books. It is the third and final part in the 'Malgudi Days" series, preceded by Swami and Friends (1935) and The Bachelor of Arts (1937).

This 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.

As an English teacher and lecturer at Albert Mission College, Krishna has led a mundane and monotonous lifestyle comparable to that of a cow. He too plays an important role of protecting the Indian culture. Soon his life took a turn when his wife, Susila, and their child, Leela, come to live with him. With their welfare on his hands, Krishna learns to be a proper husband and learns how to accept the responsibility of taking care of his family. He felt that his life had comparatively improved, as he understood that there's more meaning to life than to just teaching in the college. However, on the day when they went in search of a new house, Susila contracts typhoid after visiting a dirty lavatory, keeping her in bed for weeks. Throughout the entire course of her illness, Krishna constantly tries to keep an optimistic view about Susila's illness, keeping his hopes up by thinking that her illness would soon be cured. However, Susila eventually succumbs and passes away. Krishna, destroyed by her loss, has suicidal thoughts but gives them up for the sake of his daughter, Leela. He leads his life as a lost and miserable person after her death, but after he receives a letter from a stranger who indicates that Susila has been in contact with him and that she wants to communicate with Krishna, he becomes more collected and cheerful. This leads to Krishna’s journey in search of enlightenment, with the stranger acting as a medium to Susila in the spiritual world. Leela, on the other hand, goes to a preschool where Krishna gets to meet the headmaster, a profound man who cared for the students in his school and teaches them moral values through his own methods. The Headmaster puts his students as his top priority but he doesn’t care for his own family and children, eventually leaving them on the day predicted by an astrologer as to be when he was going to die, which did not come true. Krishna gets to learn through the headmaster on the journey to enlightenment; eventually learning to communicate to Susila on his own, thus concluding the entire story itself, with the quote that he felt 'a moment of rare immutable joy'.

This book remains me of my own father. He is English teacher and at the young age, he had struggle and mother supported him a lot. I get connected because I feel like this novel is written for my father. Moreover, I love the character of Krishna because he is seen is seen as a practical man, but in the later half of the text, he becomes a bit impractical. He finds happiness in small things & gets excited very soon. He is also a philosopher.

My favourite lines from the text are:

• Gradually, unknown to ourselves, we recline against the wall and sink into sleep. The dawn finds us all huddled on the cold floor. 
• Living without illusion seemed to be the greatest task for me…
• A profound unmitigated loneliness is the only truth of life. All else is false. My mother has got away from her parents, my sisters from our house, I and my brother away from each other,  … , my earliest friends- where are they? They scatter apart like the droplets of a water-spray. The law of life. 
•    … I can afford to do what seems to me work, something which satisfies my innermost aspiration. 

The language – so fluid, unostentatious –  brings alive  the world of Krishna. His disagreement with the education system that forces the students to learn a language meant to be savoured, and literary works  meant to be celebrated, will resonate with many a teacher of today.

The ease with which R. K. Narayan weaves together sorrow and joy makes one wonder if it is really so easy – expressing the varied human emotions in words!

The atmosphere of the place grows on you, as do the characters you wish you could meet in real life.

R. K. Narayan transports you back to that time  when innocence and simplicity really existed. The book was written in around 1945, so you can imagine the life back then. No, actually, we really can not! Krishna, his wife and daughter, their lives, their world, their journey…you will wish you could walk along with them and live those moments with them.