Summary

A Tiger for Malgudi

The book A Tiger for Malgudi was published in 1983 by Indian Thought Publications and by well known author named R.K. Narayan, a greatest author of India. R.K. Narayan consulted with noted tiger expert K. Ullas Karanth on the writing of his novel. His novels are so close to real behavior and you can almost feel that you are a part of the novel. This novel seems to be very much in the mould of Malgudi Days and is again centered in and on a village called Malgudi. A Tiger for Malgudi, the story is essentially the autobiography of the life of the tiger that is just more than a tiger. The tiger is the narrator and protagonist of the story, probably one of the very few stories where an animal is the narrator. It is a simple story, humorously presented with a touch of reality and sarcasm. A great novel to pass the time with and can learn many things from it. The story begins with an old and dying tiger recollecting its carefree cub days with its mother and siblings. As it grew into a ferocious tiger, it moved and hunted independently. He mates and has a litter with a tigress, and raises a litter. A venerable tiger, old and toothless now, looks back over his life from cub hood and early days roaming wild in the Indian jungle. As it started ageing, it came across a human habitation in a forest and made easy pickings of the livestock until one day he finds that hunters have captured and killed his entire family. He exacts revenge by attacking and eating the cattle and livestock of nearby villages, but is captured by poachers. Tired of losing their livelihood to the tiger, the villagers contact a circus ringmaster to trap the tiger. The ringmaster vows to make the tiger a star attraction in his circus in Malgudi and begins inflicting torture on the poor creature by harsh animal trainer known only as The Captain starves him and forces him to do tricks in the circus. He was trapped into a miserable circus career as Raja the magnificent. The feline breaks under the pressure and kills the trainer in a freak accident and walks out unchallenged into Malgudi where the circus is camping. The sight of a tiger strolling through the town causes a lot of commotion in the town and this is depicted comically through the eyes of the tiger. He is then sold into films until, finding the human world too brutish and bewildering; he makes a dramatic bid for freedom. After an extended rampage though town, he is recaptured, but this time voluntarily by an ascetic/monk who comes to the rescue of the town and controls the tiger through his mystical powers. The animal is captivated by his new master's sparkling eyes and follows him devoutly to the hills. Here the master enlightens the tiger and brings about a change of heart in the tiger. The Swamiji once asked the tiger to describe God and tiger said, God would be a huge Tiger as huge as all the world put together. Even his tail would be big enough to encompass all the forests on earth. The Swamiji was stuck by this description; as Man in his preoccupation has always thought God to be human like. The tiger has also commented on the human body structure as follows, The humans have a strange body structure which enables them to walk on two legs. But this structure exposes their posterior so much that no wonder they have to cover with clothes from waist down. The two of them leave Malgudi and return to hills where they pass their days in sweet philosophical discourse. The tiger spends the rest of its life loyal to its master in penance until old age overtakes Raja and he is forced to give up his freedom for ever. A haunting tale, A Tiger for Malgudi uniquely combines the elusive, timeless quality of Hindu legend with the comic vision of R.K. Narayans earlier Malgudi novels. In this story, he combines Hindu mysticism with ripe Malgudi comedy, viewing human absurdities through the eyes of a wild and revealing how, quite unexpectedly, Raja finds sweet companionship and peace. It has a good, clean humor and dialogues are really well planned. Stark reality has been portrayed as it is. An amazing plot as we can view the world from the eyes of an animal. R.K. Narayan intricately draws parallels to the stages of life of a man & tiger and beautifully depicts our life through the eyes of a tiger. This novel in particularly helped me make that shift to real books. The narrator is tiger and this impresses me on the concept front. This story is such that I cant forget, no matter how long it has been since I last read it. R.K. Narayans work inspired me to break all boundaries while letting the story flow. At last, I loved this story because of its witty & humor and an unusual narrator, The Tiger.