The English Teacher - R.K. Narayanan

The English Teacher is about Krishnan, an English teacher who is living a close to perfect life in his idyllic town, with his loving wife and an adorable daughter. Krishnan, after having enjoyed his pseudo bachelor-hood because his wife stays away from him, eventually becomes a family man and starts appreciating the little joys that come along with having a wife and daughter in his life. The day to day squabbles with his wife, the making up after the quarrels, the playful stubbornness of his child, and all the other things become an essential part of his life. All that changes when his wife falls sick, and despite reassurances from his doctor, eventually succumbs. Krishnan’s entire life breaks down, and despite doing his best as a single father, is perpetually unhappy. He receives his strength from his ever loving wife, when she finds a way to communicate with him from the other side. And that spurs Krishnan to lead the life he always wanted, but was too scared to pursue with his own petty concerns hounding him. From being suicidal after losing his wife, he finds new meaning in life as he breaks away the shackles that tied down his meaningless existence. The little joys, laughter and pain from his life are well captured by the author of Malgudi days. But then, while the environmental serenity are extremely well written, it can not really make up for a real story. The English Teacher, as far as my opinion goes, lacks severely in that department. No, I wasn’t expecting a Ludlum-like edge of the seat thriller. An ordinary story of an ordinary man can be quite profound in some ways. And The English Teacher probably would have worked for me as a short-story, but as a full-fledged novel, it seriously lacks content, and then the author resorts to depicting the mundane happenings of the protagonist’s life. Some trivial incidents are required to give the reader an idea about a character, his setting and his lifestyle. But page after page of every little detail gets tiring.

Do not get me wrong. The story, in itself, is not bad. It does well to portray the insecurities and the unpredictability in life of the most un-happening and simple individuals. But then, the writing style, which works so well in Malgudi Days, at times, leaves you a little confused about what really is going on in a character’s head. Eventually, the book is about its conclusion though. And coming from R.K.Narayanan, a tight slap to our education system probably speaks volumes.

But as I said, the story was more suited for a shorter version. But if someone is really a fan of ‘Indian-writing’ (don’t ask me what I mean), I don’t think there will be too many complains for The English Teacher.