BOOK REVIEW
The Guide is a 1958 philosophical fiction novel written by the Indian author R.K.Narayanan that won him Sahitya Academy award in 1960. Like most of his other novels, R.K.Narayanan has spun this novel also, revolving in the fictional town Malgudi in South India. R.K.Narayanan has written many books that include semi-autobiographical books like Swami and his friends, The English Teacher and his book The Financial Expert is considered as one of the most original works of 1951.This novel The Guide portrays the transformation of the lead Raju, from a corrupt tourist guide to a highly revered holy man in the country.
The novel describes the story of Raju, a young witty boy who lost his father in early days. He takes charge of the shop left by his father in the Malgudi railway station. Soon after losing his interest in the shop, Raju calls himself to be a guide and in a little while becomes a famous tourist guide in Malgudi called as “Railway Raju”. Everything is fine until the disgruntled couple Rosie and her husband Marco comes to the place. A glimpse of Rosie was enough for Raju to fall for her, a dancer whose passion for dance was never recognized by her husband Marco, a lonely writer who stares at walls as named by Raju. Further situations which creates rift between the couple favors Raju. Raju and Rosie start to live together against the wishes of Raju’s mother. With his intelligence and marketing skills, he makes Rosie a great dancer and for that he even changes her name as Nalini. But things starts to fall apart when he is caught for forgery of document to be signed by Rosie as a result of which he is sent to prison for two years. Raju not willing to return to his village after the imprisonment takes shelter in an abandoned temple in a nearby village where he meets Velan who thinks Raju as a saint and asks solution to his problem. By luck or something, Velan’s problem gets solved after seeing Raju and this news starts spreading like wild fire which makes all the villagers to approach Raju, the holy saint. Not being sure about his future, Raju starts playing the role as a saint given to him by the villagers and went ahead in giving philosophical lectures to the people. After some time when a drought hit the villages, Raju is expected by the villagers to keep a fast to bring rain as he told earlier in one of his lectures. With media publicizing the matter and with increasing number of people gathering to see him, Raju is left with two options: Either to say the truth to the people that he is not a saint or to continue the fasting. He tries telling Velan that he is not a respectable person by narrating his past to him. But his efforts goes in vain as Velan’s faith on him remains unchanged. The true faith and love shown by his disciple makes Raju decide that he should keep the fast and on the last day of his fast, he sagged down saying “Velan, it’s raining in the hills. I can feel it coming up under my feet, up my legs”.
The author in this book elaborates on how Raju transforms from a tourist guide with no value to a saint highly revered by the public. The author describes all the incidents with a tinge of humor as he does in all his other novels. The story is set in Malgudi and the author vividly explains the beauty of the place through Raju though it may seem to the readers that the description of the place is not given completely through Raju who gives his own point of view to every place. But once again the author succeeds in spinning a thoughtful entertaining story in the small setting of Malgudi. The author smartly narrates the story in two ways: (i) in first person singular for narrating the past life of Raju as a care-free young man who is blinded by love and money (ii) in third person to narrate the current events happening in the life of Raju, the saint. Sometimes, suddenly switching narrations make the readers confused, but it still enhances the novel as the author effortlessly changes from third person to first person. The Guide is funny yet a serious and thought provoking novel that presents a contrasting range of characters. All the characters in the novel portrays exactly the nature of human beings in reality which becomes a plus point for the book. Be it Raju, who is witty and takes people for granted to make himself comfortable, or Rosie, who is sure of her passion for dance but is always in dilemma of choosing between her husband and lover, or Velan, a typical village man who blindly believes a person as saint, or Marco who always gives priorities to his work. Each character’s nature is clearly defined yet the character of Marco and Rosie suddenly disappear in cloud. The author has come up with a remarkable plot in which the readers can neither hate nor love the lead protagonist. But the author finishes the novel abruptly with Raju saying that he could feel the rain in the hills and sagging down. The author leaves the end of the novel flaccid leaving the readers to speculate what happened in the end, whether Raju died or the drought ended.
The author though concludes suddenly, the novel gives readers a feeling of completeness. The novel has more bonuses when the author sarcastically criticizes the ignorance of people in the country. On whole, The Guide picturing transformation of a tourist guide to a spiritual guide is amusing, yet thought provoking, worth a read novel by Mr.R.K.Narayanan.