Summary
Raju becomes almost like a member of the family; he gives up almost all of his old life to be near Rosie. Marco keeps his hotel room but stays for over a month at Peak House. Gaffur’s car is almost permanently engaged. Rosie goes to Marco a couple days a week and seems to Raju to be too nice to the man.
Raju tries to avoid gossip and does not like when he and Gaffur are alone. Raju is also worried about not looking nice enough for Rosie so he spends a great deal of money on his appearance. Unfortunately, he is not paying very much attention to the boy running the shop and checks in only perfunctorily.
His focus on Rosie and Marco means other tourists looking for him go away disappointed. Raju does not like the boy pestering him about taking on these new clients. He doesn’t want to think about anything; everything tires him, especially his mother’s nagging and his dwindling funds. All his mental powers are focused on Rosie.
He is also stressed that the desk-man at the hotel is taking note of when he comes to see Rosie. He wonders if he ought to change the location but there is no way to do this without causing trouble for both Rosie and Marco seem to like the place.
Rosie is a source of concern for Raju now. She is losing her carefree manner and seems to be showing extra consideration for her husband. She tells Raju she cannot simply leave Marco alone and disrespect him like that. Sometimes she cries that she is doing him wrong, and “distance seemed to lend enchantment to her view now” (94). As for Marco, he loves his solitude and seems much more content in his studies.
Rosie’s eyes finally light up when Raju mentions dance to her. This was what he’d first admired in her and he tells her he’d do anything to see her dance. Brightening, Rosie begins to practice for hours a day. In one corner of her room, she sets up a statue of Nataraja (the god of dancers), burns incense, studies the ancient works of art in large tomes, and focuses on how to keep the classical purity in her art. She is incredibly focused on details and spend every moment of the day preparing for performances. Raju is baffled by her fervor but knows he must maintain his excitement for dance because it is what keeps them intimate. He asks her questions and shows himself amenable to learning, and she loves to share her knowledge with him.
When she practices, Raju watches with delight. He does not know exactly what it all means but he is very moved by the composition and the symbolism. He watches for a solid hour and his mind is free from carnal thoughts; she is merely an abstraction and he is enthralled.
The issue now is talking to Marco to see if she will be able to pursue dance as a career. She is nervous because he does not like when she talks about dance, but she has a modicum of confidence as she and Raju head to Peak House one day.
Marco is very cheerful as he greets the two of them. He speaks excitedly about what he has discovered and the book he is working on; the book, he explains, will change all ideas about the history of civilization. Rosie anxiously tends to him and pretends to be interested in what he is saying. Marco is rhapsodic about his life here, particularly in terms of Joseph, who seems to anticipate all his needs.
Raju listens to all of this and is ill at ease. He does not want Marco to get angry and hurt Rosie, nor does he want Marco to so nice that Rosie goes back to him. It is an impossible situation.
Raju has to leave and then returns to them in two days. While waiting for them to come back from the cave, he strikes up a conversation with Joseph, telling him how much Marco is pleased with him. Joseph scoffs and says that this is his job and it is necessary for him to do all this. He likes Marco but he likes him better when Rosie is not here, as he thinks of her as a nag.
After a time, Raju decides he will go down to the cave. When the couple starts approaching him, he sees Marco does not want to talk to him and Rosie looks morose. All he can do is follow them back to the house, where Marco says neither he nor Joseph are needed and shuts the door. Raju is confused. Gaffur approaches to ask when they are going back and bitterly Raju says he ought to stay and watch the show. Gaffur looks at him and tells him to go back to his normal life because he was happier then. Raju says nothing; he knows this is a reasonable request but he can do nothing.
Finally, Marco emerges and asks Gaffur if he is ready to go. He strides out. Raju tries the door and it is locked. He is puzzled and courageously walks down to Marco in the car and asks where he is going. Marco says he is going to the hotel to close his account. When Raju asks why, he replies that he does not have to explain. Gaffur asks if anyone else is coming and Marco says no.
Raju assumes an authoritative tone with Gaffur and then opens Marco’s door and pulls him out. Marco is stunned as Raju begins to tell him he wants to talk to him, that he can’t go away like this, that he must talk. He tells Gaffur to wait. Marco looks at Raju and asks what his business is with him. Raju replies that he has done a great deal for him and helped him, but Marco says that is over now. Raju asks if he will come back inside, as there is a second room he can get to be out of his sight and they can settle all their accounts. Marco sighs his assent.
Marco goes to his room and Raju to his. He sees the gorgeous sunset over the trees and wishes Rosie could see it. He has no idea what to do. He wanders to the kitchen where the food is. He knows both Rosie and Marco must be starving.
Boldly, Raju walks up to their door and pushes it open. He sees Marco sitting miserably and vacantly at his table. Rosie is lying on her bed with her swollen eyes shut. She tells Raju when she sees him that he must leave them alone. Stunned, Raju protests but she curtly and angrily tells him numerous times to go. Finally, Raju leaves and goes down to Gaffur and tells him they are leaving. On the drive out, Gaffur states it is for the best and his elders can now find a wife for him.
Raju now enters one of the most miserable periods in his entire life. He has no interest in food or sleep. He has no stability and does not care for his job anymore. He only goes through the motions and his mind is perpetually on Rosie. His mother asks what is wrong and he lies and says nothing. He cannot figure out why Rosie was so duplicitous, why she kicked him out and stayed with Marco. As for his financial situation, Raju has no care to make money. Regular life bores and terrifies him. The days pass in a blur.
One day, to his surprise, Raju’s mother tells him someone is here to see him. It is Rosie, standing with her trunk and bag. He immediately tells his mother that Rosie is a guest and will be staying with them. He is horrified at his appearance though, and is thus grateful when his mother says she will take Rosie with her to the well.
Before that, though, Raju’s mother evinces surprise and admiration that the girl is all alone and that she is educated with a master's degree. She admires that she can pay for things and asks what job Rosie will do now. Raju simply sits there and wonders how Rosie being a guest will work out given their small space, but there is no choice—she must stay with them.
Raju knows it is a luxury but he decides to engage Gaffur for the day to take Rosie out. First Gaffur is sour, but recovers his good humor. Raju asks Gaffur to take them to the river. It is a lovely evening and people are about. Shops sparkle and children play and donkeys bray and couples stroll. Raju says he and Rosie will walk.
It is now darkening. Rosie and Raju stroll for a bit and then sit, and Raju proceeds to ask her questions. He can get no real response from her for a while, however. She swings back and forth and is unclear. Finally, he asks her to tell her tale in order, step by step, and she complies.
She begins by saying Marco was happy that day until she brought up dancing. She had pretended interest in everything he wanted to show her and even went into a scary, stuffy dark cave for him. When she saw drawings in the cave that looked like dancing she finally mustered the courage to ask if she could dance. He excoriated it as a useless, stupid act and she kept quiet, hoping if she swallowed these insults he may weaken over time. In the evening, he was better, and she decided she would show him part of her dance. She brought him into the room and started, but he stopped her almost right away and said he’d seen enough. She was ashamed and upset, as she thought he’d be captivated by it. Unfortunately, she said other people saw it and liked it. It was too late for her to take back her words, and Marco asked who and when and why. Eventually everything came tumbling out and Marco knew everything. They sat until dawn. She fell asleep and when she woke he had gone to the caves.
Rosie thought she had made a terrible mistake and had been wrong in everything she did and said. She was terrified and morose. She went down to the caves but he proceeded to ignore her presence. In fact, he ignored her absolutely for days and days (during this time was when Raju saw them). Three weeks passed and she could take it no longer. Her voice cracking, she asked if he had punished her enough. He replied that this is his last word to her, that she can go where she pleases or do what she pleases. She begged him to let her stay with him but he would not relent. He said he wished he had never married.
One day, he started packing and she knew he was going to their home in Madras. She wanted to go too and packed, but at the train he told her he had no ticket for her and shut the door on her. This was when she came to him.
Rosie concludes her story, sobbing. Raju comforts her and says he will work to make her the greatest artist of her time.
Raju’s mother is not happy about this but he cares little. Rosie begins to practice and her spirits rise. She helps Raju’s mother assiduously in all tasks but the older woman still complains to Raju. She has been listening to the town’s gossip and whispers often to Raju that Rosie is a snake woman and she never liked her. Raju, exasperated, says she is a refugee and has nowhere to go. Raju’s mother snaps that she ought to go back to her husband.
Raju’s mother begins to tell stories of husbands and wives in Rosie’s presence to get at her, and Raju knows she smarts under those lessons. However, he is scared of his mother and feels helpless.
Over time, Raju’s worries deepen. The boy at the shop is not successful. It is losing money, the merchants who supply Raju stop doing so, and eventually the shop is taken from Raju and given to a new contractor. Raju takes it out on the porter's son but the boy’s father interferes and insults him. The only thing that saves him is his mother, who comes to him when he is about to fight back more intensely. She drags her son away. He is immensely gloomy knowing all of his railway associations are over.
Analysis
Raju’s obsession with Rosie deepens, especially when Marco leaves her and she has nowhere to go but his house. He ignores the pricking of conscience and the advice of Gaffur and his mother (which is ironic given his advice to the villagers to heed the voice of conscience and the soul) to be with Rosie. He lets his store fall into ruin and eventually be taken from him. He insults the porter’s boy and requires his mother to save him.
The irony in the novel lies, as Amar Nath Prasad notes, “in this that he guides other people, yet he fails to guide himself properly in his earlier life.” It is “not Marco but Raju who becomes a permanent tourist—both physically and spiritually” and Raju “preaches the whole world to lead a life free of problems, but he himself failed to show or guide his own soul to the right path.”
Critic Tabish Khair explains how for almost all of The Guide Raju “is essentially a person who values himself by the Other.” All the way up through prison and most of his time as swami, “Raju essentially ingratiates himself all around: it is his habit to evaluate himself in the light of his relationship to the Other. He is an actor who plays the roles that other peoples thrust in to him and he is not unaware of this fact by the time he comes out of prison and embarks on his ambivalent sainthood.” Critic Michael Gorra agrees, explaining, “Raju takes no active role in shaping his own career. He becomes a tour guide by accident, because other people expect it of him; so too he becomes a swami.”
In addition, the cave serves as both an illustrative backdrop for the theme of the past and present, and as a general metaphor for Marco's ignorance. In the scene of Marco and Rosie discussing the dancing motif in the cave, Rosie comes to symbolize the present while Marco symbolizes the past. Rosie is a dancer in the classical manner but it is the conditions of modernity that allow her fame to spread as it does. Her dance, even though it is classical in theme, is juxtaposed against Marco's focus on "dead and decaying things." Rosie's sexuality and independence are fully of the modern moment while Marco's paternalism is of the past. As critic John Thieme writes, Marco is "resistant to any suggestion that the classical and the contemporary may be related" even when he sees the dancing motif on the cave walls.
Finally, the cave itself serves as a general metaphor for Marco's ignorance. When Marco goes to visit the cave to probe for new archaeological discoveries, his wife Rosie falls in love with their tour guide Raju. The two lovers find ways to keep themselves away while Marco is busy in the cave. The cave here stands for ignorance and Marco remains in the darkness until it is too late. To an extent, Marco chooses to be in the cave in the same way he never quite understands his wife’s mind. He is always in the darkness of his own choosing.
