Talkative Man Summary

The World of Talkative Man in the Stories of R.K.Narayan
Dr.A. Phaniraja Kumar

The Old Man of the Temple:
It deals with the supernatural element. The Talkative Man makes no attempt to fool his listeners. The Talkative Man has no burden of guilt on his conscience. He is interested in mere story-telling. As a seasoned narrator he can anticipate the likely reaction of his listeners to such improbable story. The narrator prefaces his story as “it was some years ago that this happened. It had always mystified me”. Then he goes on to narrate with apparent matter-of-factness of the story.
Some years ago, the narrator had engaged a taxi for going to Kumbum which was fifty miles from Malgudi. The narrator started at 9a.m. and completed his work there and returned to his hometown. It was past nine in the evening. The narrator engaged a taxi driver, Mr. Doss a 19 years young boy, whom was generally engaged the narrator for going wherever. Doss is a well-behaved, obedient and really a rare quality driver. When the

Instead of the narrator, Doss Spoke on behalf of the narrator. He revealed his name was Krishna Battar. He built the temple before a cactus field. He, himself had built the temple. Many people gathered for the function of “tower-over”. The King, Vishnu Varma, the emperors of emperors often visited his temple or sent his minister for the annual festival of the temple. Krishna Battar’s wife, Seetha died four years ago of Krishna Battar. After Krishan Battar’s death, no one cared of the temple. So after his death, he became a spirit, looking himself in the temple and coming often outside the temple during nights. At one point Krishna Battar who was an old man in the body of Doss got down from the car and moved towards the temple. This made Doss to come to his normal position. He lost all the humps and twists. But Doss during driving made a dash forward and fell down in a