Gateman's Gift by R. K. Narayan in Tamil; |Malgudi Days in Tamil,

#Gateman'sGift, #R.K.Narayan, In Gateman’s Gift by R.K. Narayan we have the theme of fear, paralysis, insecurity, suffering, social opinion, pride and identity. Taken from his Malgudi Days collection the story is narrated in the third person by an unnamed narrator and after reading the story the reader realises that Narayan may be exploring the theme of fear. Singh lives in fear of opening the registered letter that has been sent to him. So crippling is Singh’s fear that he believes himself to be going mad. Though the logical thing to do would be to open the letter and discover whether the letter holds good or bad news Singh isn’t able to do this. It is also interesting that Singh loses interest in his clay-modelling because of the fear he feels over the letter. This loss of interest is important as it highlights just how overpowering the fear is for Singh. It is also interesting that Singh never thinks about just getting over what may be in the letter if the contents of the letter are of a bad nature. It is as though he would rather not know whether the letter contains good or bad news. If anything there is a sense of paralysis in the story. Singh is unable to move forward as long as he leaves the letter unopened. Rather he believes himself to be going mad based solely on the opinions of others. Which may suggest that Singh may be somewhat insecure about his identity. He doesn’t appear to have the strength to trust his own mind and is swayed by social opinion.