Headache
Introduction: R.K. Narayan (1906-2001) is one of the most famous and distinguished Indian writer in English. He had a fine insight into various aspects on the lives of the poor and the middle class people, particularly in South India. He makes the dull and common place events more interesting and this essay is one such essay. In a writing career that spanned over sixty years, Narayan received many awards and honours. His writings are full of humour. In this essay he explains the advantages of headache.
A blessing for Mankind: R.K. Narayan explains how headache conferred on mankind as a blessing by a benign providence and also talks about the usefulness of headache to avoid difficult situations. He later narrates an incident in his school life about the letter writing exercise, where his teacher used headache as a cause in the specimen letter. He always wondered what made his teacher to select for headache as a cause even in a specimen letter. Later he talks about the drill class during his school days and how students usually mentioned ‘headache’ as an excuse for avoiding the drill class after the school hours. One day the instructor asked all the students suffering from headache to hold their arms. For many students it raised large hope. The instructor also added that he was going to give them some special exercise to cure their splitting headache. Not even a boy raised his arms. Thus the instructor put an end to that problem.
Touch of Importance: Headache gives the sufferer a touch of importance because it can be mentioned in any social gathering and is well taken. No other pain can be so openly mentioned with freedom from punishment. Other aches sound crude and bad which cannot be mentioned in publish and thus headache helps us to avoid many embarrassing situation.
What is indisposition? Indisposition is a superior expression; it can be used only by eminent people. R. K. Narayan was really concerned