Monday, December 1, 2014

Can anyone summarise "Like the Sun" by R. K. Narayan?

This story by R. K. Narayan features Sekhar, who is a
teacher with a belief that just as people avoid staring at the sun, likewise people
avoid confronting the truth. He recognises that people deliberately alter what they say
to avoid hurting or shocking others. To prove his point and as an experiment, he decides
to speak and receive only the truth for one day, no matter what the consequences might
be. He starts the day as he means to continue by telling his wife precisely what he
thinks of her cooking (foolish man!), and then gives his opinion of someone who has just
died. Then his headmaster, his boss, who has spent lots of money on music lessons, asks
his opinion of his singing. Sekhar is an authority on musical matters and the
headmaster's performance is terrible, and Sekhar tells him so. The next day, nervous
about how he will respond, Sekhar is surprised to be thanked by his headmaster for
telling the truth, but he gives Sekhar one hundred papers to mark in a single night.
Sekhar feels that "sitting up all night with a hundred test papers was a small price to
pay for the luxury of practicing Truth."

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