The English Teacher

 The second reading of the novel The English Teacher by R. K. Narayan was a totally different experience to the first reading. I first read The English Teacher four five years ago, but I was not able to understand Krishna's character and the way his character subtly hints the personality traits which are more or less common to every English teacher in the world. Slighlty timid, too much worrying Krishna shares with his readers ideological beliefs that an English teacher is beqeuathed by default as a person who deals with books and literarature. More surprisingly, his character seems to relate to me in a so personal level which I have not identified at all in my first reading of the novel. Krishna is a romantic husband and proves himself to be a loving, caring husband and father throughout the entire narrative. He quoted Wordsworth to compare the astonishing beauty of his wife with Wordsworth's poetic metaphors and most importantly tries to be romantic as much as possible with his charming wife, Susila. The reader is heartbroken when Susila dies, leaving the poor husband and the child, yet also enthrilled to see her enter the narrative as an immortal spirit who pacifies her husband in a world where mortal fears and osbtacles are no longer valid. Narayan seems to create an mystic space to immortalise his notion of this romantic love by merging the mortal Krishna's liason with his dead wife. Narayan is believed to have written The English Teacher to cure his own pain and suffering over his own wife: his attempt to paint a metaphysical reunion between the young English teacher and innocent, naive Susila makes reader weep at the end of the narrative, simultaneously giving and extraordinary, humane message to the world that love should6 be celebrated, remembered and honoured at whatever the cost it is, specifically in South Asian countries like India, Sri Lanka where thousands of love laws are created by the culture.