Word: raju
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
This is a tale about a reluctant swami. The setting is Malgudi, a sleepy little Indian town dedicated to daydreaming nonviolence. One of Malgudi's daydreamers is Raju, an ex-jailbird (minor forgery) who camps on a stone slab near a temple and counts the stars. When a troubled villager says, "I have a problem, sir" and Raju hears him out, the stargazer's career as a swami has begun. Soon he gets credit for every good thing that happens in Malgudi. He repays his followers in doubtful oracular wisdom ("What can a crocodile...
...past. Author Narayan lavishes more space on this part of his story than it may be worth, but in its course he etches three striking character portraits. The adulteress is an Indian Madame Bovary; the cuckolded husband is an academic mole blind to his wife's yearnings; and Raju himself is the perennially Circefied male. After his confession, Raju expects the villagers to renounce him. But they disbelieve him-or are wise enough to know that he is not the same man he was. Their faith forces Raju to acquire the virtues he has mimicked. He fasts...