Memorable Passages-1: From 'The English Teacher' by R.K.Narayan

I used to be an avid reader of novels initially and then later non-fiction. I found so much joy in reading and I have read many novels at one stretch, forgetting food and sleep i.e. as long as they are not prescribed by school/college curriculum. Some novels left a deep impression on mind, especially a few passages became unforgettable. One such passage is from 'The English Teacher' by R.K.Narayan. (Incidentally, I am a great fan of Narayan and have read almost all his books.)(In the US, this book was titled as, 'Grateful to Life and Death', probably taken from the last line of the novel.

I returned from the village. The house seemed unbearably dull. But I bore it. "There is no escape from loneliness and separation...." I told myself often. "Wife, child, brothers, parents, friends.... We come together only to go apart again. It is one continuous movement. They move away from us as we move away from them. The law of life can't be avoided. The law comes into operation the moment we detach ourselves from our mother's womb. All struggle and misery in life is due to our attempt to arrest this law or get away from it or in allowing ourselves to be hurt by it. The fact must be recognized. A profound unmitigated loneliness is the only truth of life. All else is false. My mother got away from her parents, my sisters from our house, I and my brother away from each other, my wife was torn away from me, my daughter is going away with my mother, my father has gone away from his father, my earliest friends - where are they? They scatter apart like the droplets of a waterspray. The law of life. No sense in battling against it...." Thus I reconciled myself to this separation with less struggle than before. I read a lot, I wrote a lot, I reflected as much as I could. I saw pictures, went out for walks, and frequently met my friend the headmaster. I spent a great deal of my time watching the children at play or hearing him narrate his stories for the children as they sat under the mango tree in the school compound. When I sat there at the threshold of his hut and watched the children, all sense of loneliness ceased to oppress, and I felt a deep joy and contentment stirring within me. I felt there was nothing more for me to demand of life.