The Guide
Encyclopedia
The Guide is a 1958
novel written in English
by the India
n author R. K. Narayan
. Like most of his works the novel is based in Malgudi
, the fictional town in South India
. The novel describes the transformation of the protagonist
, Raju from a tour guide
to a spiritual guide and become one of the greatest holy man
of India
.
The novel brought its author the 1960 Sahitya Akademi Award
for English, by the Sahitya Akademi
, India's National Academy of Letters.
tactics, Rosie becomes a successful dancer. Raju, however, develops an inflated sense of self-importance and tries to control her. Raju gets involved in a case of forgery
and gets a two year sentence. After completing the sentence, Raju is passes through a village where he is mistaken for a sadhu
(a spiritual guide). Reluctantly, as he does not want to return in disgrace to Malgudi
, he stays in an abandoned temple. There is a famine
in the village and Raju is expected to keep a fast
in order to make it rain. With media publicizing his fast, a huge crowd gathers (much to Raju's resentment) to watch him fast. After fasting for several days, he goes to the riverside one morning as part of his daily ritual, where his legs sag down as he feels that the rain is falling in the hills. The ending of the novel leaves unanswered the question of whether he dies, or whether the drought
has really ended.
The history of his success and unexpected fame frames the suspense
of the story, told with Narayan's customary tolerance and humour. At the end it raises many profound questions.
variety of temple dance
rs, and the wife of Marco. Her marriage has been like a curse in disguise to her as Marco is totally engrossed in his career and is totally apathetic and unemotional to her. She is very passionate about dancing but her husband does not allow her to dance. She tries to persuade her husband and bears all the insults by him just for the sake of getting his permission to dance. When she is left in Malgudi
by Marco and lives with Raju, she devotes herself completely to dancing. She wakes early in the morning and practices hard for three hours regularly. She is always willing to talk about dance and even tries to teach Raju some of it.
She is religious and believes in Goddess Saraswati
and has the bronze statue of Nataraja
, which is an image of Shiva
as the cosmic
Lord of Dance
, in her office. She doesn’t discriminate people on the basis of their financial status. When Raju meets rich and influential people, Rosie doesn’t care much about them. Being herself an artist
, she respects the arts and likes to be in the company of artists and other music lovers.
Her success doesn’t get to her head even after becoming a very successful professional
dancer. Raju becomes upset when Rosie spends a lot of time with different artist
s rather than with him. He came to her and said that these artists come to her because they are inferior to her then she replies to him saying that she is tired of all the talk of superior
and inferior
and doesn’t believe in all these things.
She is also like a traditional India
n wife. Her husband is like God to her. Marco calls her dancing skills as street acrobatics
and compares it to monkey
dance. Despite all these insult
s she continues to be his wife. When Marco came to know about the intimacy between her and Raju he became very upset and didn’t talk to her and completely ignored her presence. She apologized to him and kept on following him like a dog hoping that his mind would change one day but that did not happen. This incident shows her tremendous tolerance power and her optimistic attitude. Even after she became very successful in her career and independent of her husband Marco she still had his photograph which meant that she still considered Marco to be her husband and highlights her traditional Indian wife kind of character. However, she was often referred as 'The Serpent
girl' by Raju's mother, because his mother thought that she was responsible for the ruined condition of her family and her son. Raju also seemed to dislike her at the end of the story and held her as the culprit
. Rosie also was disliked by Raju's friends, Gaffur and Sait because of her intimacy with Raju.
as Raju, Waheeda Rehman
as Rosie, Kishore Sahu (cameo), and Leela Chitnis
in the lead roles. The film's score was composed by S.D.Burman.
The book was also adapted to a Broadway
play by Harvey Breit
and Patricia Rinehart
, and was staged at Hudson Theatre
in 1968 with Zia Mohyeddin
playing the lead role and Ravi Shankar
scoring music.
1958 in literature
The year 1958 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*August 18 - Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel Lolita is published in United States.*First volume of The Civil War by Shelby Foote is published....
novel written in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
by the India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n author R. K. Narayan
R. K. Narayan
R. K. Narayan , shortened from Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami Tamil: ) , Madras Presidency, British India. His father was a school headmaster, and Narayan did some of his studies at his father's school...
. Like most of his works the novel is based in Malgudi
Malgudi
Malgudi is a fictitious town in India created by R.K. Narayan in his novels and short stories. It forms the setting for most of Narayan's works. Starting with his first novel, Swami and Friends, all but one of his fifteen novels and most of his short stories take place here...
, the fictional town in South India
South India
South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of India's area...
. The novel describes the transformation of the protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
, Raju from a tour guide
Tour guide
A tour guide provides assistance, information and cultural, historical and contemporary heritage interpretation to people on organized tours, individual clients, educational establishments, at religious and historical sites, museums, and at venues of other significant interest...
to a spiritual guide and become one of the greatest holy man
Holy man
Holy man can refer to:*a person, usually an ascetic, who is exceptionally pious or religious .*"Holy Man", an instrumental by Dennis Wilson, recorded during the Pacific Ocean Blue sessions that was abandoned before a vocal track was recorded...
of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
.
The novel brought its author the 1960 Sahitya Akademi Award
Sahitya Akademi Award
Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honor in India which Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of outstanding works in one of the following twenty-four major Indian languagesAssamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri,...
for English, by the Sahitya Akademi
Sahitya Akademi
The Sahitya Akademi ', India's National Academy of Letters, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India...
, India's National Academy of Letters.
Plot summary
Railway Raju (nicknamed) is a disarmingly corrupt guide who falls in love with a beautiful dancer, Rosie, the neglected wife of archaeologist Marko Gera, a lonely writer who is obsessed with other guys. Raju seduces Rosie away. Marco is unable to satisfy Rosie and therefore Rosie leaves him and goes dancing to Raju. Raju guides her as he is a guide and she's back to square one; dancing. Marco doesn't approve of Rosie's passion for dancing. Rosie, encouraged by Raju, decides to follow her dreams and start a dancing career. They start living together and Raju's mother, as she does not approve of their relationship, leaves them. Raju becomes Rosie's stage manager and soon with the help of Raju's marketingMarketing
Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
tactics, Rosie becomes a successful dancer. Raju, however, develops an inflated sense of self-importance and tries to control her. Raju gets involved in a case of forgery
Forgery
Forgery is the process of making, adapting, or imitating objects, statistics, or documents with the intent to deceive. Copies, studio replicas, and reproductions are not considered forgeries, though they may later become forgeries through knowing and willful misrepresentations. Forging money or...
and gets a two year sentence. After completing the sentence, Raju is passes through a village where he is mistaken for a sadhu
Sadhu
In Hinduism, sādhu denotes an ascetic, wandering monk. Although the vast majority of sādhus are yogīs, not all yogīs are sādhus. The sādhu is solely dedicated to achieving mokṣa , the fourth and final aśrama , through meditation and contemplation of brahman...
(a spiritual guide). Reluctantly, as he does not want to return in disgrace to Malgudi
Malgudi
Malgudi is a fictitious town in India created by R.K. Narayan in his novels and short stories. It forms the setting for most of Narayan's works. Starting with his first novel, Swami and Friends, all but one of his fifteen novels and most of his short stories take place here...
, he stays in an abandoned temple. There is a famine
Famine
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including crop failure, overpopulation, or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality. Every continent in the world has...
in the village and Raju is expected to keep a fast
Fasting
Fasting is primarily the act of willingly abstaining from some or all food, drink, or both, for a period of time. An absolute fast is normally defined as abstinence from all food and liquid for a defined period, usually a single day , or several days. Other fasts may be only partially restrictive,...
in order to make it rain. With media publicizing his fast, a huge crowd gathers (much to Raju's resentment) to watch him fast. After fasting for several days, he goes to the riverside one morning as part of his daily ritual, where his legs sag down as he feels that the rain is falling in the hills. The ending of the novel leaves unanswered the question of whether he dies, or whether the drought
Drought
A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. Generally, this occurs when a region receives consistently below average precipitation. It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region...
has really ended.
The history of his success and unexpected fame frames the suspense
Suspense
Suspense is a feeling of uncertainty and anxiety about the outcome of certain actions, most often referring to an audience's perceptions in a dramatic work. Suspense is not exclusive to fiction, though. Suspense may operate in any situation where there is a lead-up to a big event or dramatic...
of the story, told with Narayan's customary tolerance and humour. At the end it raises many profound questions.
Character of Rosie
Rosie is one of the main characters in the novel. She is presented in the novel as a beautiful dancer, of the DevadasiDevadasi
In Hinduism, the devadasi tradition is a religious tradition in which girls are "married" and dedicated to a deity or to a temple and includes performance aspects such as those that take place in the temple as well as in the courtly and mujuvani [telegu] or home context. Dance and music were...
variety of temple dance
Temple dance
Temple dance denotes a religious performance held in the temples, such as sadir, prescribed by Agamas...
rs, and the wife of Marco. Her marriage has been like a curse in disguise to her as Marco is totally engrossed in his career and is totally apathetic and unemotional to her. She is very passionate about dancing but her husband does not allow her to dance. She tries to persuade her husband and bears all the insults by him just for the sake of getting his permission to dance. When she is left in Malgudi
Malgudi
Malgudi is a fictitious town in India created by R.K. Narayan in his novels and short stories. It forms the setting for most of Narayan's works. Starting with his first novel, Swami and Friends, all but one of his fifteen novels and most of his short stories take place here...
by Marco and lives with Raju, she devotes herself completely to dancing. She wakes early in the morning and practices hard for three hours regularly. She is always willing to talk about dance and even tries to teach Raju some of it.
She is religious and believes in Goddess Saraswati
Saraswati
In Hinduism Saraswati , is the goddess of knowledge, music, arts, science and technology. She is the consort of Brahma, also revered as His Shakti....
and has the bronze statue of Nataraja
Nataraja
Nataraja or Nataraj , The Lord of Dance; Tamil: கூத்தன் ;Telugu:నటరాజ is a depiction of the Hindu god Shiva as the cosmic dancer Koothan who performs his divine dance to destroy a weary universe and make preparations for god Brahma to start the process of creation...
, which is an image of Shiva
Shiva
Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...
as the cosmic
COSMIC
Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate is a program designed to provide advances in meteorology, ionospheric research, climatology, and space weather by using GPS satellites in conjunction with low Earth orbiting satellites...
Lord of Dance
Dance
Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....
, in her office. She doesn’t discriminate people on the basis of their financial status. When Raju meets rich and influential people, Rosie doesn’t care much about them. Being herself an artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
, she respects the arts and likes to be in the company of artists and other music lovers.
Her success doesn’t get to her head even after becoming a very successful professional
Professional
A professional is a person who is paid to undertake a specialised set of tasks and to complete them for a fee. The traditional professions were doctors, lawyers, clergymen, and commissioned military officers. Today, the term is applied to estate agents, surveyors , environmental scientists,...
dancer. Raju becomes upset when Rosie spends a lot of time with different artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
s rather than with him. He came to her and said that these artists come to her because they are inferior to her then she replies to him saying that she is tired of all the talk of superior
Superior
Superior may refer to:*Superior : something which is higher in a hierarchical structure of any kind-Place names:*Superior Superior may refer to:*Superior (hierarchy): something which is higher in a hierarchical structure of any kind-Place names:*Superior Superior may refer to:*Superior (hierarchy):...
and inferior
Inferior
Inferior means of lower station, rank, degree, or grade . It may also refer to:* Inferiority complex* An anatomical term of location* Inferior angle of the scapula, in the human skeleton...
and doesn’t believe in all these things.
She is also like a traditional India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n wife. Her husband is like God to her. Marco calls her dancing skills as street acrobatics
Acrobatics
Acrobatics is the performance of extraordinary feats of balance, agility and motor coordination. It can be found in many of the performing arts, as well as many sports...
and compares it to monkey
Monkey
A monkey is a primate, either an Old World monkey or a New World monkey. There are about 260 known living species of monkey. Many are arboreal, although there are species that live primarily on the ground, such as baboons. Monkeys are generally considered to be intelligent. Unlike apes, monkeys...
dance. Despite all these insult
Insult
An insult is an expression, statement which is considered degrading and offensive. Insults may be intentional or accidental...
s she continues to be his wife. When Marco came to know about the intimacy between her and Raju he became very upset and didn’t talk to her and completely ignored her presence. She apologized to him and kept on following him like a dog hoping that his mind would change one day but that did not happen. This incident shows her tremendous tolerance power and her optimistic attitude. Even after she became very successful in her career and independent of her husband Marco she still had his photograph which meant that she still considered Marco to be her husband and highlights her traditional Indian wife kind of character. However, she was often referred as 'The Serpent
Serpent
Serpent may refer to:* Serpent, a synonym for snake* Serpent , the name given to a snake in a religious or mythological context* Serpent , said to have tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden* Serpent in astronomy...
girl' by Raju's mother, because his mother thought that she was responsible for the ruined condition of her family and her son. Raju also seemed to dislike her at the end of the story and held her as the culprit
Culprit
A culprit, under English law properly the prisoner at the bar, is one accused of a crime. The term is used, generally, of one guilty of an offence. In origin the word is a combination of two Anglo-French legal words, culpable: guilty, and prit or prest: Old French: ready...
. Rosie also was disliked by Raju's friends, Gaffur and Sait because of her intimacy with Raju.
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
The film Guide was released in 1965, based on the novel. It starred Dev AnandDev Anand
Dharam Dev Anand , better known as Dev Anand , is an Indian Hindi Cinema actor, director and film producer. Dev is the second of three brothers who were active in Hindi Cinema. His brothers are Chetan Anand and Vijay Anand. Their sister, Sheel Kanta Kapur, is the mother of renowned Hindi and...
as Raju, Waheeda Rehman
Waheeda Rehman
Waheeda Rehman , is an Indian film actress who appears in Bollywood movies and is known for many successful and critically acclaimed movies from 1950's, 60's and early 70's most notably C.I.D. and Guru Dutt classics such as Pyaasa , 12 O'Clock , Kaagaz Ke Phool , Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam...
as Rosie, Kishore Sahu (cameo), and Leela Chitnis
Leela Chitnis
Leela Chitnis was an early actress in the Indian film industry.-Early life:She was born in Dharwar, Karnataka to an English professor. She was one of the first educated film actresses...
in the lead roles. The film's score was composed by S.D.Burman.
The book was also adapted to a Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
play by Harvey Breit
Harvey Breit
Harvey Breit was an American poet, editor, and playwright. He was married to poet and playwright Patricia Rinehart. He co-wrote the play The Disenchanted with Budd Schulberg, an adaption from Schulberg's novel of the same name, about the life of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Breit adapted other novels for...
and Patricia Rinehart
Patricia Rinehart
Patricia Rinehart was an American poet and playwright. With Harvey Breit, whom she had married in 1955, she adapted R. K. Narayan's novel The Guide for Broadway.-References:...
, and was staged at Hudson Theatre
Hudson Theatre
The Hudson Theatre is a former Broadway theater located at 141 West 44th Street, in midtown Manhattan, New York. Today the Hudson functions as a conference center and television studio. It is owned by Millennium & Copthorne Hotels.-History:...
in 1968 with Zia Mohyeddin
Zia Mohyeddin
Zia Mohyeddin is a Pakistani actor famed for his voice.He was born in Faisalabad, , British India in a Urdu Speaking Family. He passed his early life in Karachi. He was trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London from 1953-1956...
playing the lead role and Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar , often referred to by the title Pandit, is an Indian musician and composer who plays the plucked string instrument sitar. He has been described as the best known contemporary Indian musician by Hans Neuhoff in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart.Shankar was born in Varanasi and spent...
scoring music.