The Financial Expert by R. K. Narayan

The Financial Expert by R. K. Narayan

Author:R. K. Narayan [Narayan, R. K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-345-80384-9
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2012-07-18T00:00:00+00:00


Margayya had converted the small room into a study for Balu. Every morning Margayya carried out an inspection of this room in order to see that his son learnt civilized ways and kept his things in their proper places, but he always found the mat not spread out on the floor, but stood up against a corner half-rolled, his books scattered on the floor, and his little desk full of stones, feathers, cigarette foils and empty packets. These were all collected from a small shop made of dealwood planks near by which had recently been set up by a man from Malabar. Margayya felt unhappy when he saw the condition of this room. In his view a study had to be a very orderly place, with books arrayed on one side, and the clothes of the scholar folded and in their place on the wire stretched across the wall. Margayya had secured a small framed picture of the Goddess Saraswathi, the Goddess of Learning and Enlightenment, sitting beside her peacock and playing on the strings of a veena. He hung it in the study and enjoined his son ceremoniously to pray to the Goddess every morning as soon as he got up from bed. He inquired untiringly, ‘Boy, have you made your prostrations before the Goddess?’

‘Yes,’ the boy answered, and ran in and performed them in a moment, then came back to the hall and just hung about staring at the sky or into the kitchen. Margayya felt angry. He told his son sharply: ‘God is not like your drill class, to go and dawdle about half-heartedly. You must have your heart in it.’

‘I prostrated all right, father.’

‘Yes, but your mind was where?’

‘I was thinking of … of …’ He considered for a moment, and added, ‘My lessons,’ knowing it would please his father. But it did not seem to have that effect.

‘When you prostrate, you must not prostrate so fast.’

‘How long can I lie on the floor prostrate?’ the boy asked sullenly. ‘I can’t be lying there all the time.’

‘If you grumble so much about your duties to the Goddess, you will never become a learned man, that is all,’ Margayya warned him.

‘I don’t care,’ said the boy, very angry at the thought of an exacting Goddess.

‘You will be called a useless donkey by the whole world, remember,’ Margayya said, his temper rising. ‘Learn to talk with more reverence about the gods … Do you know where I was, how I started, how I earned the favour of the Goddess by prayer and petition? Do you know why I succeeded? It was because my mind was concentrated on the Goddess. The Goddess is the only one who can – ’

The boy cut him short with, ‘I know it is a different Goddess you worshipped. It is that Goddess Lakshmi. I know all that from mother.’

Margayya felt upset by this taunt. He called his wife and asked, ‘Why have you been talking nonsense to this boy? He is saying all sorts of things.



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