Iswaran
Malgudi Days
Summary
This short story is about a young man named Iswaran who is notorious for failing the Intermediate Examination. The whole town of Malgudi knows that Iswaran has failed this exam repeatedly and he is constantly antagonized about not passing. At first his parents sympathized with him but after several times of failing that grew old and they encouraged Iswaran to do something more useful. Despite failing the examination repeatedly Iswaran is determined to well on his final one because it is his last chance. Iswaran is so used to the negative results of his examination that he doesn’t even bother to wait at the Senate House with the rest of the students but instead he goes to watch two films. After the films are over Iswaran writes a note for his father and slips it in his coat pocket that he plans to leave on the steps at the Senate House. Late at night Iswaran heads to the Senate House while no one is there to find out that he did in fact pass the examination. He was so overwhelmed at the fact that he just passed that he goes crazy and drowns in the Sarayu. His body was later found about a quarter of a mile down the course of the river and someone had discovered his coat along with the note inside it that read “ My dear father: By the time you see this letter I shall be at the bottom of Sarayu. I don’t want to live. Don’t worry about me. You have other sons who are not such dunces as I am.”
Meaning of the work
Other Quotations Connecting to the Meaning of the Work
"Years of strain and suspense were suddenly relaxed; and he could hardly bear the force of this release." (59)
Both quotes show how pressure negatively affect Iswaran and how passing the examination totally consumed his entire life. The first quote demonstrates how the pressure in Iswaran's life has gotten so overwhelming that he doesn't even want to live anymore. The second quote describes how relieved Iswaran felt when he saw that he had in fact passed the exam. All of his worrying days were now over and he finally had something to feel accomplished about.
Education in India
Bibliography
Bhattacharya, Sabyasachi, ed. The Contested Terrain: Perspectives on Education in India. New Delhi: Orient Longmans, 1998.
Ghosh, Suresh Chandra. The History of Education in Ancient India, c. 3000 B.C. to A.D. 1192. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 2001.
Hasan, Mushirul, ed. Knowledge, Power and Politics: Educational Institutions in India. New Delhi: Lotus, 1998.
Kumar, Nita. Lessons from Schools: The History of Education in Banaras. New Delhi and Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 1999.
"The GNU Operating System." The Education System in India. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2013.