The Cat and Shakespeare
Raja Rao
Language: English
Pages: 84
ISBN: 0143422324
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
The Cat and Shakespeare is a gentle, almost teasing fable of two friends — Govindan Nair, an astute, down-to-earth philosopher and clerk, who tackles the problems of routine living with extraordinary common sense and gusto, and whose refreshing and unorthodox conclusions continually panic Ramakrishna Pai, Nair’s friend, neighbour and narrator of the story. This evocative novel brings alive the raw texture of Indian life, and delights in its humour.
The Cat and Shakespeare RAJA RAO (1909–2006), a path-breaker of Indian writing in English, was born in Hassan, Mysore. After he graduated from Madras University, he went on to the University of Montpellier in France on a scholarship. He moved to the United States in 1966, where he taught at the University of Texas at Austin until 1983, when he retired as emeritus professor.A powerful and profound writer, and a superb stylist, Rao successfully and imaginatively appropriated English for the Indian narrative. He was honoured with India’s second-highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan, in 2007, the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1964, and the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1988.*R. PARTHASARATHY is a poet and translator. The author of the long poem ‘Rough Passage’, he edited the influential anthology Ten Twentieth-Century Indian Poets. His translation of the fifth-century Tamil epic, the Cilappatikāram, was awarded the 1995 Sahitya Akademi Award. He is a professor emeritus of English and Asian studies at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York. He was Raja Rao’s editor from 1974 to 1998
R. PARTHASARATHY is a poet and translator. The author of the long poem ‘Rough Passage’, he edited the influential anthology Ten Twentieth-Century Indian Poets. His translation of the fifth-century Tamil epic, the Cilappatikāram, was awarded the 1995 Sahitya Akademi Award. He is a professor emeritus of English and Asian studies at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York. He was Raja Rao’s editor from 1974 to 1998
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Guava in a few minutes. But because it gave me no pain, I just went back to my table. In a few hours my whole body except my face had nothing but boils. They rose, grew red and then yellow, añd burst like country eggs. I went to the chemists’ and they gave me an ointment and bandages. I walked home with four bandages. I could not touch anything except coffee, I had such disgust. What’s the use of having a wife if she cannot take care of one — for when boils come, do they say, Dear Sir, I am.
Sir, what is the matter?’ ‘What is this nonsense about the cat?’ By now Shivaraman, Syed Sahib and Muthukrishna Pillay had joined him at the door. ‘Yes, what is it?’ ‘Govindan Nair always talks of a mother cat. It carries the kitten by the scruff of its neck. That is why he is so carefree. He says, “Learn the way of the kitten. Then you’re saved. Allow the mother cat, sir, to carry you,”’ said John, and suppressed his resentful laughter. Bhoothalinga Iyer was a Brahmin. For him a cat, a.
Isn’t that so, John?’ ‘Yes, my lord,’ said John, rising up from his seat. ‘So, gentlemen, I wanted to know how much zoology our friend knew. What is a Persian cat called in Latin? In fact what is the Latin name for a cat?’ ‘Felinus,’ said Abraham, remembering his church instructions. ‘Then felinus persiana would be a Persian cat,’ said Govindan Nair, who knew of course everything. ‘Yes,’ said Abraham dubiously. ‘And man?’’ ‘Humanus.’ ‘And I?’ he said. ‘Ego.’ ‘Make me a Latin sentence,.
Not only stinks, but as in the case of Bhoothalinga Iyer, it sits up suddenly in the middle of its end, it sits up, and one would think it was going to shout an order: Hey, there (sneeze, sneeze, two sneezes are good)! Hey there, bring me the Ummathur file and seventeen sacks of rice gone — and yet it’s a half-corrupt, half-burned thing purring with many fluids. “Chee-Chee!” This body. And this mind, with its encaged gramophone record, another His Master’s Voice, and all it needs is a white dog.
Tags, ‘Once upon a time’ and ‘And this is how it all began’, but these are usually digressions. Other characteristics of the oral narrative include the use of songs and prayers, proverbs, mythology, and epic lists and catalogues. In fact, the novel is unthinkable without the oral tradition. The preface itself defines Kanthapura as an oral — not written — text. It may have been told of an evening, when as the dusk falls, and through the sudden quiet, lights leap up in house after house, and.