Krishna-Susila (in The English Teacher)

In the earlier years of our married life we often sat

together with one or other of the books, in the single topfloor room in her fathers house, and tried to read. The first half an hour would be wasted because of an

irresponsible mood coming over her, which made her

laugh at everything: even the most solemn poem would provoke her, especially such poems as were addressed by a lover. My true love hath my heart and I have his. She would laugh till she became red in the face. (157)

Swamiji-Wife (A Tiger for Malgudi)

I cant go without you or let me stay with you Impossible. What you see is my old shell; inside its all changed. You cant share my life. Come home with me, Ill accept you as you are, keep your beard and loin cloth, only let me have my husband at home(171)

Protective mothers and authoritative fathers

His lips were black with cigarette which she knew he smoked, he often smelt of them when he came home. But she kept the secret knowledge to herself since she didnt like to set her husband against him.(137) He is not my son he declared dramatically. A boy who has an utter disregard for his fathers feeling is no son. He is a curse that the Gods have sent down for us. He is not my son. (147)

Mother-Child The English Teacher Krishnas mother

How is the child?, she asked getting down. It was her very first question..over the rattling of the wheels she spoke, complaining about my correspondence, enquiring about the child, if the old cook was well, and how I was managing to look after the child. I was tremendously pleased; as I looked at her, warm and throbbing with life and enquiries, it seemed to restore for a moment ones sense of security, the solid factors of life, and its warmth and interest. (172)

Grandmother Swami and Friends

Here I am going hoarse telling you important things and you fall asleep and imagine all sorts of nonsense. I am not going to tell you any thing more. I know why you are so indifferent. You hate Rajam. No, no, he is a lovely little boy, Grandmother said with conviction, though she had never seen Rajam. Swaminathan was pleased. Next moment a new doubt assailed him. Granny, probably you dont believe the tiger incident. Oh, I believe every word of it, Granny said soothingly. Swaminathan was pleased. (21)

Siblings The Financial Expert

Margayya walked in front of the car, and he had invited a few citizens of the road to go with him as well. Strangest sight of all, his brother was also with him in the procession. They seemed to have made it up all of a sudden. On the eve of the schooling ceremony Margayya stated, After all, he is his own uncle, his own blood, my brother, and unless he blesses the child, of what worth are all the other blessings he may get? He grew sentimental at the thought of his elder brother. Dont you know he brought me up. But for his loving care. He rambled on thus. .there are times when we should set aside all our usual perfidies and notions we must not let down ties of blood.(106)

In-laws The Vendor of Sweets

at one stage a bitterness arose over the quality of the coffee supplied to the

bridegrooms house by their hosts, and one of Jagans uncles, a very elderly man, threatened to

leave the marriage party... (161)

Caste-Based Relationship The Dark Room

I see you are a Brahmin and wont stay with us. I will ask someone of your caste to receive you or stay in our house. I will clear a part for you and never come there. I will buy a new pot for you and rice and you can cook your own food. I will never come that way. I will never cook anything in our house which may be repulsive for you. (105-106).

Social Aspects
He is not my son, he declared dramatically. A boy who has an utter disregard for his fathers feeling is no son. He is a curse that the gods have sent down for us. He is not my son. (The Financial Expert) Recalling how Ramani slapped Babu for meddling with electricity, Savitri says, I dont mind any treatment personally, but when a child. (Dark Room)

Margayya walked in front of the car, and he had invited a few citizens of the road to go with him as well. Strangest sight of all, his brother was also with him in the procession. They seemed to have made it up all of a sudden. On the eve of the schooling ceremony Margayya stated, After all he is his own unclde, his own blood, my brother unless he blesses the child, of what worth are all the other blessings he may get? He grew sentimental at the thought of his elder brother. Dont you know he brought me up. But for his loving care.. He rambled on thus There are times when we set aside all our usual perfidrees and notions we must not let down ties of blood. (The Financial Expert)
9

Caste or class Pride and Prejudice

Could you expect me to rejoice in the inferiority of your myself connections? on the hope To of

congratulate

relations, whose condition in life is so decidedly beneath my own?

Ceremony Funeral (The English Teacher

Susila lies there under the window, laid out on the floor. For there is the law that, even if it is an Emperor it must rest only on the floor, on Mother Earth. The first thing they do is to send for the priest and the bearers. Neighbours, relations and friends arrive The priest roams over the house, asking for one thing or other for performing the rite The corpse bearers, grim and sub-human, have arrived with their equipment - bamboo and coir ropes. Near the front step they raise a small fire with cinders and faggots - this is the fire which is to follow us to the cremation ground. A bamboo stretcher is ready on the ground in front of the house. The parting moment has come. The bearers, after brief and curt preliminary walk-in, lift her casually without fuss as if she were an empty sack or box, lay her on the stretcher, and tie her up with ropes. Her face looks at the sky, bright with the saffron touched on her face, and the vermillion on the forehead, and a string of jasmine somewhere about her headEveryone gathers a handful of rice and puts it between her lips our last offering. They shoulder the stretcher. Im given a pot containing the fire and we march out (94-96)

Child Marriage Grandmothers Tale

You are going to be married today next week. Why? she asked and did not get an answer. After fixing the date of the wedding, they kept her strictly indoors and did not allow her to go out and play. On an auspicious day she was clad in a saree, decked in jewellery and taken to the pillared hall of the temple where guests, relatives, and priests had gathered, a piper and a drummer creating enough noise to drown the uproar of the priests chanting mantras and the babble of the guests. She was garlanded and made to sit beside a boy whom she has often noticed tossing a rubber ball in an adjoining street She felt shy to look at him now, sitting too close to him on a plank. The smoke from the holy fire smarted her eyes and also created a smoke-screen, blurring her vision whenever she stole a glance in his direction. At the auspicious hour, the piper, drummer and the chanting priests combined to create the maximum din as Vishwa approached the girl, seated on her fathers lap, and tied the yellow thread around her neck and they became man and wife from that moment. (12,13)

Initiating the young to school The Financial Expert

Margayya made a great performance of it. He took the young man in a decorated motor with pipes and drums through the market road: the traffic was held up for half an hour when Balus procession passed. Balu sat with the top of his head shaved, with diamonds sparkling on his earlobes, and a rose garland round his neck, in a taxi with four of his picked friends by his side. (105)

Sixtieth Birthday The Vendor of Sweets

I have probably outlived my purpose in this house. If I live for ten or fifteen years more, it has to be on a different plane. At sixty, one is reborn and enters into a new janma. That was the reason why people celebrated their sixtieth birthdays. He remembered his father and mother, his uncle and aunt, and a score of other couples celebrating their sixtieth year like a wedding, with pipe drum and feasting. People loved to celebrate one thing or another all the time. (175)

Prostrating at elders feetThe Vendor of Sweets

A look of triumph glowed on Jagans face as he

went from guest to guest, prostrated at their feet

and received their blessings. Ambika followed him, prostrated at the feet of the guests, and was also blessed by everyone. (173)

Relationship with In-Laws Rig Veda

Attaining the love of the parents-in-law, sisters and brothers-in-law and the relatives of your husband and enjoying wealth, may you shine forth (Rig Veda, 15.6).

In the eyes of the father-in-law, in the eyes of

the mother-in-law, become the Queen, likewise

in the eyes of husbands sisters, husbands

brothers, become the Queen. (Rig Veda, 10.55)

Rig-Veda
Dont you believe now that I could have been a Hindu in my last life. I am able to bend down and draw the design on the floor as I see a lot of others do. (87)

Taking a Vow The Financial Expert

I prayed for him and promised the Gods his weight in silver rupees if he should be born. Did you fulfill that promise? someone asked going off at a tangent: For that is a sacred pledge, you know. Margayyas wife answered: Yes, it was done within an hour of his birth. Yes, these vows must be fulfilled with the shortest time possible How much did the child weigh? About Rs.300 weight at birth. We tramped to Tirupathi, Margayya said. (160)

Superstitions related to widows _ Grandmothers Tale

He is no more but they are keeping it a secret. Instead of shaving her head and wearing white, she oils and combs her hair and decks it with flowers! And comes to the temple with kumkum on her brow, pretending to be a sumangali. A widow who pretends to be otherwise pollutes the temple precinct and its holiness is lost. She should be prohibited from entering the temple unless she shaves her head and observes the rules. (29)

Everyday Menu
The cook had prepared the meal very well because he had the run of the kitchen in the absence of specific instructions from Savithri. Pure ghee and parched coconut were used liberally. There was also the potato and onion stuff. The sauce and the plantain chips were delicious to Ramani. (The Dark Room, 43)

Special Menu
A grand feast was prepared by a company of expert cook: Huge plantain leaves were spread out in the second court, with silver tumbler and bowls for each guest and a dozen delicacies and side dishes in addition to heaps of softly cooked ivory-like rice. A pipe and drum party seated in the front part of the house created enough din to make it known to the whole town that a marriage was being settled. (The Vendor of Sweets, 159)

Ascetic Menu
Conquer taste and you will have conquered the self, says Jagan. But his cousin thinks otherwise: I hope I shall not become a yogi and lose the taste for all. Jagan said: Do you know what I eat now-a-days? I have given up salt since this morning. One must eat only natural salt. I have discontinued sugar as you know; I find twenty drops of honey in hot water quite adequate and that is the natural way of taking in the sugar we need. I have given up rice too. I cook a little stone ground wheat and take it with honey and greens. (The Vendor of Sweets, 7-8)

Sanctity of the Kitchen

Father, why dont you engage a cook? I dont believe in engaging any cook. Why not? Do we engage a servant to do the breathing for us? Food is similar. Oh Father, Father!, the boy cried. Dont you engage cooks in your sweetmeat shop? Oh, thats different. Its like a factory and they are specialists and technicians. (The Vendor of Sweets, 24)

Sumangali Dress
She applied a little scented oil to her hair and combed it with great care. She braided and coiled it very neatly. She washed her face with soap and water and applied very lightly a little face powder. She stood before the mirror, applied a little perfumed paste between her eyebrows and pressed a very elegant pinch of vermillion in it, and trimmed its edges with her little finger to make it perfectly round. She went out into the garden and picked some jasmine and red flowers, strung them together, and placed them in a curve on the coil at the back of her head. (The Dark Room, 81)

Child Marriage
The engagement between them is of a peculiar kind. From their infancy they have been intended for each other. It was the favorite wish of his mother as well as of hers. While in their cradles, we planned the union(Pride and Prejudice, 307)

Arranged Marriage
Father, began Ninaemeka suddenly, I have come to ask for forgiveness. Forgiveness? For what, my son? he asked in amazement. Its about this marriage question. Which marriage question? I cant we must I mean, it is impossible for me to marry Nwekes daughter. Impossible? Why? asked his father. I dont love her. Nobody said you did. Why should you? he asked. Marriage today is different Look here, my son, interrupted his father. Nothing is different. What one looks for in a wife are good character and a Christian background and later his father says I owe it to you, my son, as a duty to show you what is right and what is wrong Its Satans work. (Achebe, 26)

Arranged Marriage
Father, began Ninaemeka suddenly, I have come to ask for forgiveness. Forgiveness? For what, my son? he asked in amazement. Its about this marriage question. Which marriage question? I cant we must I mean, it is impossible for me to marry Nwekes daughter. Impossible? Why? asked his father. I dont love her. Nobody said you did. Why should you? he asked. Marriage today is different Look here, my son, interrupted his father. Nothing is different. What one looks for in a wife are good character and a Christian background and later his father says I owe it to you, my son, as a duty to show you what is right and what is wrong Its Satans work. (Achebe, 26)

Myths Reinforcing
When Sathyavan died, did not Savithri conquer Yama himself and trap him into promising her a boon? And the boon she asked for was to beget his children. Yama had to give her his blessing that she should have children after accepting the boon. She asked how it would be possible when he as the God of death was carrying away her husbands life, leaving his inert body in the forest and then Yama had to yield back Sathyavans life. You could not imagine a greater woman than Savithri for austerity and purity of mind. (66)

Myths Ironical Interpretations

If you want to marry me, you must leave me to my own plans even when I am a wife. On any day you question why or how, I will leave you Raman said, Whatever you say, I will never interfere, I wont question you. I will be like the ancient king Santanu. (The Painter of Sings, 159)

Myths Ironical Interpretations

If you want to marry me, you must leave me to my own plans even when I am a wife. On any day you question why or how, I will leave you Raman said, Whatever you say, I will never interfere, I wont question you. I will be like the ancient king Santanu. (The Painter of Sings, 159)

Philosophy - Dharma
Even if the house is filled with hundreds of

relatives and others, it is a lonely place for

a husband to live in if there is no wife (Rig

Veda)

Spiritual Growth
If by avoiding food I should help the trees bloom, and the grass grow, why not do it thoroughly? (The Guide, 213)

Now, in my story the Tiger Hermit employs his powers to

save the tiger and transform it inwardly working on the basis that deep within, the core of personality is the same in spite of differing appearances and categories and, with the right approach you could expect the same response from a tiger

as from any normal human being. (A Tiger for Malgudi, 910)

Vanaprastha
Where, where are you going? asked the cousin anxiously. I will seek a new interest different from the set of repetitions performed for sixty years. I am going somewhere, not carrying more than what my shoulder can bear. (The Vendor of Sweets, 183)

Sanyasa
A Sanyasi is one who renounces everything and undergoes a complete change of personality. Why one would become a Sanyasi is not easily answered a personal tragedy or frustration, a deeply compelling philosophy of life, or a flash of illumination may drive one to seek a change. Whatever the cause, when one becomes a Sanyasi, one obliterates ones past. A Sanyasi is to be taken as he is at the moment. You can never ask a Sanyasi about his earlier life..He assumes a new name bearing no mark of his ancestry or class but indicative of some general beatitude..Among certain sects, the man will even perform his own funeral ritualistically before becoming a Sanyasi. A Sanyasi is a wanderer, living on alms, never rooted to any place, except when he seeks the seclusion of a cave or forest or some stage for prolonged meditation. (A Tiger for Malgudi, 9)