The Guide

by

R. K. Narayan

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The protagonist and part-narrator of The Guide, Raju is a trickster-charlatan whose greatest talent lies in re-inventing himself. With roots in a modest household in the town of Malgudi in southern India, Raju knows how to make the best of opportunities—as evidenced, for instance, in the way that he takes advantage of the railway that is newly constructed in Malgudi to create a career for himself as a tourist guide. Articulate and persuasive, Raju has no qualms about twisting facts—and even reality—to suit his interests, a skill which he deploys relentlessly in his role as host to tourists in Malgudi. Raju’s penchant for duplicity is also evidenced in the affair that he commences with Rosie behind the back of her husband, Marco, who also happens to be one of Raju’s customers. Driven by a desire for wealth, Raju’s greed is apparent in the way that he exploits Rosie’s immense talents as a dancer to enrich himself once he again reinvents himself as her manager. Jealousy and a desire for control are the other hallmarks of his character, qualities which, along with his deceitful tendencies, ultimately land him in prison. And yet, as low as Raju may go, he seems always able to rise again. In his final reinvention as a holy man or spiritual guide on the riverbank near a small village after his release from prison, Raju comes to fulfill the destiny of “a guide” in the highest sense. Although initially playing the role of “swami” so as to exploit the villagers’ generosity, Raju ultimately lives up to the villagers’ faith in him by risking everything to save them.

Raju Quotes in The Guide

The The Guide quotes below are all either spoken by Raju or refer to Raju. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Hypocrisy and Disguise Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

[…] the villager resumed the study of his face with intense respect. And Raju stroked his chin thoughtfully to make sure that an apostolic beard had not suddenly grown there. It was still smooth.

Related Characters: Raju, Velan
Related Symbols: Water
Page Number: 2
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2 Quotes

Where could he go? He had not trained himself to make a living out of hard work. Food was coming to him unasked now. If he went away somewhere else certainly nobody was going to take the trouble to bring him food in return for just waiting for it.

Related Characters: Raju, The Villagers
Related Symbols: Water
Page Number: 24
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

One fine day, beyond the tamarind tree the station building was ready. The steel tracks gleamed in the sun; the signal posts stood with their red and green stripes and their colorful lamps; and our world was neatly divided into this side of the railway line and that side.

Related Characters: Raju (speaker), Raju’s Father, Raju’s Mother, Velan
Related Symbols: The Railway, Malgudi
Page Number: 27
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

Raju himself was not certain why he had advised that, and so he added, “If you do it you will know why.” The essence of sainthood seemed to lie in one’s ability to utter mystifying statements.

Related Characters: Raju (speaker), The Villagers
Related Symbols: Water
Page Number: 38
Explanation and Analysis:

Raju soon realized that his spiritual status would be enhanced if he grew a beard and long hair to fall on his nape. A clean-shaven, close-haired saint was an anomaly.

Related Characters: Raju, The Villagers
Related Symbols: Water
Page Number: 39
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

I pointed out to him something as the greatest, the highest, the only one in the world. I gave statistics out of my head. I mentioned a relic as belonging to the thirteenth century before Christ or the thirteenth century after Christ, according to the mood of the hour.

Related Characters: Raju (speaker), Velan
Related Symbols: Malgudi
Page Number: 43
Explanation and Analysis:

The man pulled out his gourd flute and played on it shrilly, and the cobra raised itself and darted hither and thither and swayed…[Rosie] stretched out her arm slightly and swayed it in imitation of the movement; she swayed her whole body to the rhythm—for just a second, but that was sufficient to tell me

what she was, the greatest dancer of the century.

Related Characters: Raju (speaker), Rosie / Nalini, Marco Polo
Related Symbols: The Serpent
Page Number: 51
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6 Quotes

[…] he suddenly noticed at the end of the year that the skies never dimmed with cloud. The summer seemed to continue. Raju inquired, “Where are the rains?”

Related Characters: Raju (speaker), The Villagers
Related Symbols: Water
Page Number: 70
Explanation and Analysis:

Did they expect him to starve for fifteen days and stand in knee-deep water for eight hours? He sat up.

Related Characters: Raju, The Villagers, Velan’s Brother
Related Symbols: Water
Page Number: 85
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

I was accepted by Marco as a member of the family. From guiding tourists I seemed to have come to a sort of concentrated guiding of a single family.

Related Characters: Raju (speaker), Rosie / Nalini, Marco Polo
Related Symbols: Malgudi
Page Number: 88
Explanation and Analysis:

Rosie was lying on her bed with eyes shut. (Was she in a faint? I wondered for a second.) I had never seen her in such a miserable condition before. He was sitting in his chair, elbow on the table, his chin on his fist. I had never seen him so vacant before.

Related Characters: Raju (speaker), Rosie / Nalini, Marco Polo
Related Symbols: Malgudi
Page Number: 105
Explanation and Analysis:

“[…] I followed him, day after day, like a dog—waiting on his grace. He ignored me totally. I could never have imagined that one human being could ignore the presence of another human being so completely.”

Related Characters: Rosie / Nalini (speaker), Raju, Marco Polo
Related Symbols: Malgudi
Page Number: 118
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

“You are not of our family? Are you of our clan?” He again waited for her to answer and answered himself. “No. Are you of our caste? No. Our class? No. Do we know you? No. Do you belong to this house? No. In that case, why are you here? After all, you are a dancing girl. We do not admit them in our families. Understand?”

Related Characters: Raju (speaker), Raju’s Uncle (speaker), Rosie / Nalini, Raju’s Mother
Page Number: 133
Explanation and Analysis:

I dressed myself soberly for the part in a sort of rough-spun silk shirt and an upper cloth and a handspun and handwoven dhoti, and I wore rimless glasses—a present from Marco at one of our first meetings. I wore a wristwatch—all this in my view lent such weight to what I said that they had to listen to me respectfully. I too felt changed; I had ceased to be the old Railway Raju.

Related Characters: Raju (speaker), Rosie / Nalini
Related Symbols: The Railway
Page Number: 139
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

I silently fretted. I liked her to be happy—but only in my company. This group of miscellaneous art folk I didn’t quite approve.

Related Characters: Raju (speaker), Rosie / Nalini
Page Number: 149
Explanation and Analysis:

It seemed absurd that we should earn less than the maximum we could manage. My philosophy was that while it lasted the maximum money had to be squeezed out. We needed all the money in the world.

Related Characters: Raju (speaker), Rosie / Nalini
Page Number: 153
Explanation and Analysis:

[…] I carried [the book] to my most secret, guarded place in the house—the liquor chest, adjoining the card room, the key of which I carried next to my heart—stuffed the volume out of sight, and locked it up. Nalini never went near it. I did not mention the book to her.

Related Characters: Raju (speaker), Rosie / Nalini, Marco Polo
Page Number: 156
Explanation and Analysis:

I found a scrap of paper and made a careful trial of Rosie’s signature. I had her sign so many checks and receipts each day that I was very familiar with it.

Then I carefully spread out the application form and wrote on the indicated line: “Rosie, Nalini.”

Related Characters: Raju (speaker), Rosie / Nalini, Marco Polo
Page Number: 164
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

I was now a sort of hanger-on in the house; ever since she had released me from police custody, the mastery had passed to her. I fretted inwardly at the thought of it. When the first shock of the affair had subsided, she became hardened. She never spoke to me except as to a tramp she had salvaged.

Related Characters: Raju (speaker), Rosie / Nalini, Marco Polo
Page Number: 173
Explanation and Analysis:

I felt like telling Mani, “Be careful. She’ll lead you on before you know where you are, and then you will find yourself in my shoes all of a sudden! Beware the snake woman!” I knew my mind was not working either normally or fairly. I knew I was growing jealous of her self-reliance. But I forgot for the

moment that she was doing it all for my sake.

Related Characters: Raju (speaker), Rosie / Nalini, Mani
Related Symbols: The Serpent
Page Number: 176
Explanation and Analysis:

But on Friday and Saturday I turned the last page of the Hindu with trembling fingers—and the last column in its top portion always displayed the same block, Nalini’s photograph, the name of the institution where she was performing, and the price of tickets. Now at this corner of South India, now there, next week in Ceylon, and another week in Bombay or Delhi. Her empire was expanding rather than shrinking.

Related Characters: Raju (speaker), Rosie / Nalini
Page Number: 181-182
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

Raju asked, “Now you have heard me fully?” […]

“Yes, Swami.”

Raju was taken aback at still being addressed as “Swami.” “What do you think of it?”

Velan looked quite pained at having to answer such a question. “I don’t know why you tell me all this, Swami. It’s very kind of you to address at such length your humble servant.”

Related Characters: Raju (speaker), Velan (speaker)
Page Number: 184
Explanation and Analysis:

“Will you tell us something about your early life?”

“What do you want me to say?”

“Er—for instance, have you always been a yogi?”

“Yes; more or less.”

Related Characters: Raju (speaker)
Page Number: 193
Explanation and Analysis:

The morning sun was out by now; a great shaft of light illuminated the surroundings. It was difficult to hold Raju on his feet, as he had a tendency to flop down. They held him as if he were a baby. Raju opened his eyes, looked about, and said, “Velan, it’s raining in the hills. I can feel it coming up under my feet, up my legs—” He sagged down.

Related Characters: Raju (speaker), Velan
Related Symbols: Water
Page Number: 196
Explanation and Analysis:
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Raju Quotes in The Guide

The The Guide quotes below are all either spoken by Raju or refer to Raju. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Hypocrisy and Disguise Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

[…] the villager resumed the study of his face with intense respect. And Raju stroked his chin thoughtfully to make sure that an apostolic beard had not suddenly grown there. It was still smooth.

Related Characters: Raju, Velan
Related Symbols: Water
Page Number: 2
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2 Quotes

Where could he go? He had not trained himself to make a living out of hard work. Food was coming to him unasked now. If he went away somewhere else certainly nobody was going to take the trouble to bring him food in return for just waiting for it.

Related Characters: Raju, The Villagers
Related Symbols: Water
Page Number: 24
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

One fine day, beyond the tamarind tree the station building was ready. The steel tracks gleamed in the sun; the signal posts stood with their red and green stripes and their colorful lamps; and our world was neatly divided into this side of the railway line and that side.

Related Characters: Raju (speaker), Raju’s Father, Raju’s Mother, Velan
Related Symbols: The Railway, Malgudi
Page Number: 27
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

Raju himself was not certain why he had advised that, and so he added, “If you do it you will know why.” The essence of sainthood seemed to lie in one’s ability to utter mystifying statements.

Related Characters: Raju (speaker), The Villagers
Related Symbols: Water
Page Number: 38
Explanation and Analysis:

Raju soon realized that his spiritual status would be enhanced if he grew a beard and long hair to fall on his nape. A clean-shaven, close-haired saint was an anomaly.

Related Characters: Raju, The Villagers
Related Symbols: Water
Page Number: 39
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

I pointed out to him something as the greatest, the highest, the only one in the world. I gave statistics out of my head. I mentioned a relic as belonging to the thirteenth century before Christ or the thirteenth century after Christ, according to the mood of the hour.

Related Characters: Raju (speaker), Velan
Related Symbols: Malgudi
Page Number: 43
Explanation and Analysis:

The man pulled out his gourd flute and played on it shrilly, and the cobra raised itself and darted hither and thither and swayed…[Rosie] stretched out her arm slightly and swayed it in imitation of the movement; she swayed her whole body to the rhythm—for just a second, but that was sufficient to tell me

what she was, the greatest dancer of the century.

Related Characters: Raju (speaker), Rosie / Nalini, Marco Polo
Related Symbols: The Serpent
Page Number: 51
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6 Quotes

[…] he suddenly noticed at the end of the year that the skies never dimmed with cloud. The summer seemed to continue. Raju inquired, “Where are the rains?”

Related Characters: Raju (speaker), The Villagers
Related Symbols: Water
Page Number: 70
Explanation and Analysis:

Did they expect him to starve for fifteen days and stand in knee-deep water for eight hours? He sat up.

Related Characters: Raju, The Villagers, Velan’s Brother
Related Symbols: Water
Page Number: 85
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

I was accepted by Marco as a member of the family. From guiding tourists I seemed to have come to a sort of concentrated guiding of a single family.

Related Characters: Raju (speaker), Rosie / Nalini, Marco Polo
Related Symbols: Malgudi
Page Number: 88
Explanation and Analysis:

Rosie was lying on her bed with eyes shut. (Was she in a faint? I wondered for a second.) I had never seen her in such a miserable condition before. He was sitting in his chair, elbow on the table, his chin on his fist. I had never seen him so vacant before.

Related Characters: Raju (speaker), Rosie / Nalini, Marco Polo
Related Symbols: Malgudi
Page Number: 105
Explanation and Analysis:

“[…] I followed him, day after day, like a dog—waiting on his grace. He ignored me totally. I could never have imagined that one human being could ignore the presence of another human being so completely.”

Related Characters: Rosie / Nalini (speaker), Raju, Marco Polo
Related Symbols: Malgudi
Page Number: 118
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

“You are not of our family? Are you of our clan?” He again waited for her to answer and answered himself. “No. Are you of our caste? No. Our class? No. Do we know you? No. Do you belong to this house? No. In that case, why are you here? After all, you are a dancing girl. We do not admit them in our families. Understand?”

Related Characters: Raju (speaker), Raju’s Uncle (speaker), Rosie / Nalini, Raju’s Mother
Page Number: 133
Explanation and Analysis:

I dressed myself soberly for the part in a sort of rough-spun silk shirt and an upper cloth and a handspun and handwoven dhoti, and I wore rimless glasses—a present from Marco at one of our first meetings. I wore a wristwatch—all this in my view lent such weight to what I said that they had to listen to me respectfully. I too felt changed; I had ceased to be the old Railway Raju.

Related Characters: Raju (speaker), Rosie / Nalini
Related Symbols: The Railway
Page Number: 139
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

I silently fretted. I liked her to be happy—but only in my company. This group of miscellaneous art folk I didn’t quite approve.

Related Characters: Raju (speaker), Rosie / Nalini
Page Number: 149
Explanation and Analysis:

It seemed absurd that we should earn less than the maximum we could manage. My philosophy was that while it lasted the maximum money had to be squeezed out. We needed all the money in the world.

Related Characters: Raju (speaker), Rosie / Nalini
Page Number: 153
Explanation and Analysis:

[…] I carried [the book] to my most secret, guarded place in the house—the liquor chest, adjoining the card room, the key of which I carried next to my heart—stuffed the volume out of sight, and locked it up. Nalini never went near it. I did not mention the book to her.

Related Characters: Raju (speaker), Rosie / Nalini, Marco Polo
Page Number: 156
Explanation and Analysis:

I found a scrap of paper and made a careful trial of Rosie’s signature. I had her sign so many checks and receipts each day that I was very familiar with it.

Then I carefully spread out the application form and wrote on the indicated line: “Rosie, Nalini.”

Related Characters: Raju (speaker), Rosie / Nalini, Marco Polo
Page Number: 164
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

I was now a sort of hanger-on in the house; ever since she had released me from police custody, the mastery had passed to her. I fretted inwardly at the thought of it. When the first shock of the affair had subsided, she became hardened. She never spoke to me except as to a tramp she had salvaged.

Related Characters: Raju (speaker), Rosie / Nalini, Marco Polo
Page Number: 173
Explanation and Analysis:

I felt like telling Mani, “Be careful. She’ll lead you on before you know where you are, and then you will find yourself in my shoes all of a sudden! Beware the snake woman!” I knew my mind was not working either normally or fairly. I knew I was growing jealous of her self-reliance. But I forgot for the

moment that she was doing it all for my sake.

Related Characters: Raju (speaker), Rosie / Nalini, Mani
Related Symbols: The Serpent
Page Number: 176
Explanation and Analysis:

But on Friday and Saturday I turned the last page of the Hindu with trembling fingers—and the last column in its top portion always displayed the same block, Nalini’s photograph, the name of the institution where she was performing, and the price of tickets. Now at this corner of South India, now there, next week in Ceylon, and another week in Bombay or Delhi. Her empire was expanding rather than shrinking.

Related Characters: Raju (speaker), Rosie / Nalini
Page Number: 181-182
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

Raju asked, “Now you have heard me fully?” […]

“Yes, Swami.”

Raju was taken aback at still being addressed as “Swami.” “What do you think of it?”

Velan looked quite pained at having to answer such a question. “I don’t know why you tell me all this, Swami. It’s very kind of you to address at such length your humble servant.”

Related Characters: Raju (speaker), Velan (speaker)
Page Number: 184
Explanation and Analysis:

“Will you tell us something about your early life?”

“What do you want me to say?”

“Er—for instance, have you always been a yogi?”

“Yes; more or less.”

Related Characters: Raju (speaker)
Page Number: 193
Explanation and Analysis:

The morning sun was out by now; a great shaft of light illuminated the surroundings. It was difficult to hold Raju on his feet, as he had a tendency to flop down. They held him as if he were a baby. Raju opened his eyes, looked about, and said, “Velan, it’s raining in the hills. I can feel it coming up under my feet, up my legs—” He sagged down.

Related Characters: Raju (speaker), Velan
Related Symbols: Water
Page Number: 196
Explanation and Analysis: