An autobiographical novel “The English Teacher” is written by famous Indian author R.K Narayan and it was originally published on 1945. The Story of book centers around three major characters named Krishna, an English lecturer, his wife named Susila, who is a housewife and their loving daughter named Leela, a preschool student.
THE ENGLISH TEACHER BY R.K NARAYAN
Summary of The English Teacher By R.K Narayan
The story of novel revolves around a major character named Krishna, a professor at Albert Mission College located in Malgudi. Krishna was a student at Albert Mission College and after completing his graduation he became professor in his college. Krishna is married to a woman named Susila, a perfect housewife and they have one beautiful daughter, Leela. Despite being a lecturer at Albert Mission College, Krishna does not like his job because it is far away from his home and he misses his wife and daughter a lot.
One day when Krishna came back from college to his hostel, he saw a letter from his father in which his father has written that his wife Susila and daughter Leela are coming in his town Malgudi to live with him. Krishna is very happy now and started looking for a rental house for his wife and daughter, he finally came across at one house of twenty five rupees monthly rent near his hostel.
Afterwards, Susila and Leela came in Malgudi to live with Krishna and now their family started living together happily. Krishna is very happy now because when he goes home from college, now he gets a warm welcome from his wife and daughter.
One day an old woman comes in Krishna’s house with one letter from his mother in which Krishna’s mother has written that this old orphaned woman is my childhood friend, please give her space to live in your home and in return she will help your wife in housework.
Krishna and Susila allowed old woman to live with them and in return she started doing all the housework like washing dishes, sweeping and cooking. Susila became free woman because as now she gets a lot of help from old woman in housework and she has started spending more time with her husband.
Later on, Krishna received one more letter from his father in which his father advices him to build his own home, and he will also help him in building house by giving him money. Krishna and Susila started looking for home and they go through one house which they didn’t like where Susila is stung by mosquito, suffered from typhoid and died after few weeks of terrible fever.
After Susila’s death, Krishna goes in depression, loses all of his hope in life and now his only hope is his daughter whom he loves endlessly. Leela is the only reason why Krishna is still alive, after work he spends all of his time with his loving daughter. One day when Krishna was lecturing his class students, one boy from class gave him one letter which was written by his wife Susila, Krishna gets confused ask boy about letter, a boy told him that his father gave him this letter.
Krishna in curiosity goes to meet boy’s father and his father told him that he goes daily at banks of river to do meditation and one day when he was doing meditation with pen and paper to collect his thoughts, he saw that one soul starts writing on paper which was Susila’s soul and it wrote the name and address of Krishna.
Krishna started going at banks of river to communicate with his wife Susila’s soul and her soul told him that she will never leave her husband and daughter at any time in life. Krishna is pleased because his wife soul is with him and he can talk with her at anytime whenever he wants to.
The story now jumps to Leela who has started going preschool, she has one headmaster who endlessly love all the children of his school. Leela’s headmaster belongs to rich family but he has no interest in money or in his family as his only priorities are his school students. One day Krishna gets to meet headmaster, slowly – slowly they became good friends and Headmaster offered English teacher job to Krishna which he accepted happily.
There comes a mother of Krishna who comes in his town Malgudi and suggest him to marry another woman as he needs someone to take care of his family. Krishna rejects his mother offer because he only love one woman Susila and he dropped his mother and daughter in his mother’s village. Krishna became alone now as his daughter is with his mother and in sadness he quit his job.
When Krishna was coming home he saw a soul of Susila with his eyes who started talking with her and spends whole night with her in home. The story of English Teacher ends with Krishna meeting Susila in their home.
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