Summary
Chapter 1
A man approaches Raju in the lonely temple ruins and he welcomes him. Raju asks him to sit down. Raju is sitting cross-legged on a granite slab as if it were a throne. It is evening and the birds are rustling near the river.
The man responds to some of Raju’s companionable questions. Raju thinks to himself how he likes this rambling because he’s been alone here for the day. He strokes his chin, and also thinks about how his last shave was two days ago and he paid for it with his money from jail.
The barber could tell he was just out, and told Raju as he shaved his face that he put his business here for a reason. The barber could also tell Raju did not do anything too bad, and asked what he will do next. Raju thoughtfully said he doesn't know.
The villager looks up reverentially at Raju as he sits on the higher step. Raju wishes he could blurt out that he is not holy and is only here because he wants to make sure people don’t recognize him. As he is about to try and say he is not as great as the man imagines, the man states that he has a problem. Immediately Raju’s old guide mentality comes back and he asks the man to tell him about it. Back in the day tourists always sought Raju out; it was “in his nature to get involved in other people’s interests and activities” (4).
At a later stage, Raju will narrate his own story to this man, who is named Velan. He will tell him that his troubles started with Rosie. Interestingly, she called herself that, which is odd because she is just an Indian and not a foreigner. She is a dancer, and an orthodox one at that. Raju always used to praise her dancing. She was married to Marco, a grotesque man. From the moment Raju saw him, dressed like a perpetual tourist, he knew that this man was perfect for a guide like himself.
Why did Raju become a guide? It seems like it was fated. The railway was in his life from a young age. His parents’ house was near the Malgudi station, and his father had built it long before trains were even thought of. His father had a small shop known as “the hut shop.” Raju worked there often.
Raju’s father taught him the Tamil alphabet and disciplined him if he messed up. Rau also learned arithmetic. Being confined to his father’s company for hours was difficult, but eventually his father went to the shop and he was able to play at the tamarind tree with his marbles, iron hoop, and rubber ball. Sometimes his father took Raju to town when he went shopping, and there Raju marveled at the panorama of life he saw there. He drowsily watched the activities of the marketplace.
The man interrupts Raju’s reveries and says he has a problem. Raju states that everyone does. He feels confident that he appears saintly. The man tells Raju his name is Velan and his father’s last wife’s daughter lives with them. The girl shows no gratitude for all the things he has given her and she does not want to accept the plans for her marriage. She ran away, and Velan had to search for her and bring her back. Now she sulks in her room all day. He asks Raju what to do.
Raju tells Velan to bring the girl to him. Velan is grateful and tries to touch Raju’s feet, but Raju says it is not permitted. He is feeling more and more saintly.
That evening, Raju watches the river and listens to the rustling of the trees. He cannot sleep and decides to count the stars, especially as people will be impressed when he can tell them how many there are. He loses count though, and falls sleep.
The next morning, Velan brings his half-sister. Raju is flustered and wants to be alone for his morning ablutions, so he makes them wait. When he reemerges, he sees the food and drink the visitors have brought him. He is not unhappy, having learned to accept any opportunity for food.
Raju begins to feel like this adulation of him is right and normal. He tells the story of Devaka, a man from ancient times but he cannot remember the end. He lapses into silence. Velan is not perturbed; he is a perfect disciple.
Raju’s thoughts go back to his mother and her stories. She would tell them while they waited for his father to come home at night. He loved staying out late with his friends and visitors, discussing litigations and prices of grain and rainfall and more. He ignored food and sleep, and would tell Raju when he came to get him to just set some food and milk aside.
Raju would then run back home, but he had to go through a dark patch that always gave him a cold sweat and made him think of wild animals or supernatural beings. His mother would sit with him once inside, and her presence was comforting. He would ask for a story and she would commence telling one.
Back in the present moment, Raju feels a sense of irritation because he’d rather think of his own problems. He tells Velan he cannot think of his problems right now but will do so when the time is ripe. Velan does not protest and stands humbly to leave. Somewhat mollified, Raju asks if this is the sister. Velan assents. Raju says that with time he will have a solution. Time is needed for the proper understanding. He is proud of his words.
He asks himself though, if he has been in prison or some transmigration. Raju looks at the girl and says what must happen will happen.
Velan and the sister cross the river and Raju watches them go.
Chapter 2
There is a great deal of activity in front of Raju’s childhood home, and the family soon learns the trains are coming. A mountain of dirt rises and trucks are busy all day. Raju loves the exciting changes, the talk of the workers, and the special metal objects he finds and treasures. He does not like other boys coming near what he sees as his domain and curses one. His father reprimands him and says he must go to school.
Raju is terribly depressed to be taken from his kingdom. He has no choice, though, and his father enjoys bragging to others that his son is being educated. It is a long walk to the school and Raju is almost always late. He wishes he could go to Albert Mission School, which is closer, but his father insists that they try to convert students to Christianity there.
Raju’s school is a pyol school, meaning lessons are taught in the pyol of an old gentleman’s house. The man is stern, abusive, and irritated by the mere presence of his students. He only cares for the money he gets for teaching them and the gifts the parents send. That is when he is most obliging to the boys.
Raju does learn enough to qualify for the first standard in Board High School. He can read and do some multiplication. The old master is actually quite proud of Raju and two other boys for making it that far.
Back in the present, Velan comes before Raju brimming with excitement. He declares there has been a miracle—his sister has decided to comply with everything they ask of her. Her marriage is soon, and the household is happy and light. Raju asks if he is moving quickly before the girl changes her mind, and Velan is impressed with Raju’s insight. Raju doesn’t want every single thing he says to be considered genius, so he says sharply that it is an ordinary guess.
Raju’s own smartness is beginning to unsettle him. Velan invites him to the wedding but he does not go. This does not save him though, for Velan brings the girl and her new husband to Raju. The girl says authoritatively that Raju has to only look at you and you are changed.
Raju’s circle gradually widens. More and more people arrive. Raju says nothing. They sit quietly and demurely. Raju is uncomfortable; he has the day to himself but at night the villagers are there. One night, he actually hides from them and he hears them concernedly wondering if he has gone away. He hears their voices trail away. After they leave, Raju finds the food they left and is grateful for it. He hopes Velan and the others will never think he is too good for food.
The next morning, Raju considers his situation. Should he go back to Malgudi? He cannot work out in the real world. How else will he get food? He decides he must stay here.
That evening Raju assumes his pose of beatitude. He has decided to look as brilliant and radiant as he can and not hold back. He even feels a certain excitement as he anticipates the villagers’ arrival. However, there is no sign of anyone. His fears return. He wishes he could go search for Velan but that is undignified.
He spots a boy grazing sheep on the opposite bank and calls him over. He announces he is the new priest of this temple and will give him a plantain. The boy explains that he does not come here usually because of the crocodiles, but that his uncle asked him to in order to see if the holy man was there. Raju gives him the plantain and tells him to tell his uncle the man is back.
Chapter 3
The station building is finally ready. It seems as if Raju’s world is neatly divided into one side of the railroad and the other. The building is decorated and people gather to celebrate. Police guard the platform as people flock around. Several important people give speeches. Raju’s father’s shop has record sales that day.
Over time, the trains bring more prosperity to Raju’s father, who buys a horse and carriage. Raju’s mother is skeptical about all of this and nags his father incessantly. As they become the talk of the town, she sees them as too vain. Whenever his father is not using the horse, she berates him. His father seems to be less aggressive lately and seriously begins to think about getting rid of the horse.
A blacksmith proposes to rent out the horse, but the horse’s groom offers Raju’s father another deal: let him ply it for use in the market. This works out well for a few days, but the groom stops finding business and begs for remission. It seems he has misappropriated his funds, and he starts to complain that the horse is getting too skinny. The man offers to buy the horse and carriage and Raju’s father, exhausted, agrees. They are all glad to be rid of it.
Raju’s father is given the privilege of running a shop at the railway station. It is so spacious that when his father fills it with articles from the hut shop, it looks empty. The stationmaster comes by, and Raju’s father is very deferential to him. The man orders Raju’s father to fill it up more and Raju’s father, seeing the stationmaster as a god-like figure, agrees with alacrity. He purchases more goods and fills the shop.
Raju is put in charge of the smaller shop. He does not know what to do about all the old people who hang around there whom his father used to converse with, and over time his father ends up back at the hut shop and Raju works at the new shop. Raju’s schooling drops off unobtrusively.
Chapter 4
Everyone in the village is pleased the holy man is back at his post and they arrive in a great mass. Raju sees young boys and ask what they are studying. They say nothing and an elder says they cannot send their boys to school as they do in town because they have to graze cattle. Raju asserts that boys must read, so perhaps they can gather here in the evenings and learn. He asks to see the schoolteacher.
The next day, a timid man arrives, but it is Raju who is nervous at first when his latent fears of teachers rise back up in him. Raju is not very clear-headed after his sleep and asks the teacher a few questions. The teacher finally asks if Raju had said something about educating the boys here. Raju replies that if he needs a place he can have it. The teacher demurs, but suddenly Raju is authoritative and says it is their duty to make everyone happy and wise. The teacher is struck by Raju’s magnanimity and goes back to the village a changed man.
He returns with about a dozen boys. He asks Raju to speak to them and Raju does, marveling at how wise he sounds as he speaks of godliness and cleanliness and the epics. Years ago, Raju had always read a lot during his shopping days. Sometimes schoolboys left books there.
His father died suddenly during the rainy part of the year. His mother adjusted to being a widow; she had enough to live on. Raju closed down the hut shop and worked full time at the station shop. He began stocking newspapers, magazines, and books, and enjoyed talking with people. Students often gathered there.
Everyone is impatient to return in the evenings to the holy man’s place. The children extol the merits of what they heard. Raju feels like an actor as the people circle around him in the pillared hall. He tells the teacher to take the boys to a corner to read and learn, and that he must speak to the elders. He is concerned, though, because he does not know what to speak of. The only thing he can speak with authority on is jail life and its benefits, such as being mistaken for a saint. He wishes he could just call them fools and tell them to leave him alone with his food.
Finally, Raju says he will speak to them all another day, and that they ought to spend their time thinking about their thoughts and actions from the day. This confuses some of them, especially as they are just cattle drivers and not philosophers. Raju says simply that if they do it they will know why, and marvels to himself that being a saint seems to be merely saying pithy things. He picks three men and says they must come back tomorrow and repeat six words they said.
The next day, Raju beats a soft rhythm and chants a holy song. Others join in and the ancient ceiling echoes with their voices. Some people have brought little pictures of gods and women begin to decorate the space. Raju realizes his spiritual status will go higher if he grows a beard and long hair.
By the time he gets this hair, his prestige has grown beyond his wildest dreams. His gatherings overflow into the corridor and to the river’s edge. Raju doesn’t know names except Velan’s, but the people do not care. They bring him sick children and their quarrels and concerns. He barely has a private life anymore and feels the strain. He likes when he can be a normal man for a few minutes.
Analysis
The Guide is often considered Narayan’s best work for its humor, complexity, and gentle irony. It is one of the “Malgudi” novels, meaning that it features Narayan’s fictional town (see “Other” in this study guide). Raju’s narration of his childhood fleshes this place out, giving readers a sense of its bustling activity and navigation of modernity (in this case, the railroad). Critic Charles R. Larson sees Malgudi as “predominantly comic, reflecting with humor the struggle of the individual consciousness to find peace within the framework of public life.”
As a child, many of Raju’s characteristics that are notable when he is an adult are already manifesting themselves: he likes talking to people, he likes money, he does not like when someone else trespasses on what he perceives as his property (e.g., when he is a child it is the other little boy on his dirt heap, and when he is an adult it is friends of Rosie claiming her time), and he values complete freedom to do what he wants. School annoys him, as does listening to his parents. He is most alive when he can talk to people and, potentially, guide them.
The title of the novel, then, is an obvious nod to what it is about: Raju is a guide, first as “Railway Raju,” then as Rosie’s career coach, then as the putative holy man (the dichotomy between his skills as a guide and his lack of understanding of his own psyche will be explored throughout the rest of the text). He stumbles into the holy man position completely by accident because a simple villager, Velan, mistakes him for one. Raju is used to pretending and since his options are limited, he immediately embraces the position Velan inadvertently levies upon him. Without even knowing what Raju’s past as the tour guide and as Rosie’s lover contains, the reader can already tell this is a man who is full of himself and who relishes even a modicum of people’s admiration. When Velan first sits down “[Raju] had experienced a feeling of importance” (9) and admires his own deliverance of pontifical statements. Within a few minutes “he felt he was attaining the stature of a saint” (10) and “had already begun to feel that the adulation directed to him was inevitable” (11-12). He thinks himself brilliant and decides to “let drop gems of thought from his lips, assume all the radiance available, and afford them all the guidance they required without stint” (25). Narayan’s tone is gentle but highly ironic. After all, Raju is a convicted criminal just out of jail, mostly uneducated, and not at all religious or trained to be a holy man. He has no business telling parables or giving advice.
To an extent, though, Raju knows this. He evinced some hesitation and nervousness about this new role, and more than once thinks he ought to flee. He cannot remember the end to some of his maxims and often has to make up things. To be honest, if Velan weren’t so gullible and simple-minded, or if the small fragments of advice Raju stumbled into giving to Velan’s sister, who then told the whole village of Raju’s power, hadn’t been so well received, it is likely his time in the ruins would have been short-lived.
In these first few chapters, Narayan jumps back and forth from the contemporary moment where Raju is a holy man to his childhood. The structure of the novel is thus somewhat complex in that there is a third-person narration of Raju-as-holy-man and a first-person narration by Raju himself that is told to Velan, though the reasons for and the timing of that narration are not yet clear. The two stories could have been told in the same fashion, as critic T.C. Ghai writes, but their superimposition is purposeful. In Raju’s own narration, the story goes from childhood to jail “when he comes out unchanged, unrepentant, and without any awareness of his true nature. That is why he is ready to play the imposter again when he foresees the possibilities of his new situation into which he has been placed by Velan’s mistaking him for a saint. Raju takes the decision without any inner struggle at all.” In the other narration, “Raju, caught inescapably into the network of his own creation, moves toward self-awareness and sainthood.” Ghai finds this form too haphazard, seeing the two narrators’ voices as indistinguishable from each other and Raju’s narration is too prosaic and leisurely. However, other critics such as John Thieme, see it as more valuable. Thieme praises the “dialectical interplay” and believes that the “first-person narrative clearly enlights sympathy for a character whose transgressive behavior might otherwise seem reprehensible, while the third-person ‘camera eye’ view of him in his sadhu persona withholds judgement on the issue of whether the former tourist guide can now reasonably be viewed as a spiritual guide.”
