The Blind Dog

Oscar Wilde has been my favorite author for a long time now. I remember going through my Gulmohar English textbook (C.B.S.E. Board) to find him and reading those stories first. I liked his writing style specially the way he ended his stories with a twist, usually very dark but still a twist. Out of all his stories I have read, the one that impressed me the most was ‘The Nightingale and The Rose’  (click to read the story). I cried buckets when I first read it.

Today, I read yet another heart-breaking story with an ironic ending just like ‘The Nightingale and The Rose’. The story is by R.K. Narayan and it’s called ‘The Blind Dog’ (click to read the story). The story is from his famous book Malgudi Days. Remember, the good old Doordarshan days when serials were telecasted at 9 PM? Remember Swami and his friends from Malgudi days? Based on those memories, I took up the book for a light reading but R.K. Narayan writing style is so much in kin with Oscar Wilde that it is turning into some pretty heavy reading. I have read 5 stories so far: An Astrologer’s Day, The Missing Mail, The Doctor’s Word, Gateman’s Gift  and The Blind Dog. They have increasingly become murkier and the last one, The Blind Dog, was the darkest so far. I don’t have any emotional strength left to go on now. I still have 27 stories left. God have mercy on my poor soul…

P.S.: 1. BTW, did you know the famous movie Guide (Dev Anand’s) was based on R. K. Narayan’s novel The Guide? Remember the ironic, sad ending of the movie?

2. I wonder why I don’t remember reading any of the R.K. Narayan’s stories in our English textbook. Is it just me or we didn’t have any of his stories in our school textbooks?

*Credit: Image from- thenumber42.deviantart.com