A modest shopkeeper in the town of Malgudi, Raju’s father is by turns soft and severe with his son, whom he takes shopping with him at times, and whom he threatens with violence at others—particularly when Raju misbehaves or fails to learn the lessons that his father attempts to teach him. He is a social man who likes chatting with the customers who stop at his shop. When he opens a second shop in the railway station that is built across from his house, he prospers. However, Raju’s father doesn’t survive long—taken ill during the rainy season one year, he dies before his son reaches full adulthood.
Raju’s Father Quotes in The Guide
The The Guide quotes below are all either spoken by Raju’s Father or refer to Raju’s Father. 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:
).
Note: all page numbers and citation info for the quotes below refer to the Penguin edition of The Guide published in 1958.
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
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Guide LitChart as a printable PDF.
Raju’s Father Character Timeline in The Guide
The timeline below shows where the character Raju’s Father appears in The Guide. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...a small house opposite the railway station of Malgudi, in a house built by his father long before trains arrived in the town.
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Raju’s father made a living from a small shop he built on the premises of the house,...
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...remembers being back in Malgudi, his mother telling him stories as they waited for his father to close his shop. Raju’s mother would send her son out to see if his...
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Chapter 2
...tells Velan of the construction of the railway in Malgudi, across the street from his father’s house. Construction workers have begun work on the line, parking their trucks beneath the tamarind...
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...that has become Raju’s territory. Raju pounces and curses the boy, who runs to Raju’s father, repeating the curses that Raju hurled at him. Raju’s father is infuriated and, upon learning...
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...has an endless walk to school, and is often distracted, dawdling on the way. Raju’s father, proud of his son’s education, takes to boasting about the old master who oversees the...
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Chapter 3
The railway is good for Raju’s father’s shop, which prospers as a result of the growing population around the railway station. Raju’s...
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Raju’s father makes a deal with a groom, who hires the carriage to sell goods in the...
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Raju’s father is given the privilege to run a fancier, bigger shop at the railway station. The...
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Raju takes his father’s place at the hut shop—the original shop built on the premises of their home. However,...
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Chapter 4
...school, he had continued to read in between serving customers at the railway shop. Raju’s father died suddenly during the rainy season of that year. With his mother’s consent, Raju decided...
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Chapter 8
...is still civil to Rosie. She thinks that her son has ruined everything that his father built.
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