Selected Stories of Rabindranath Tagore (61 of 2024)

 Another buy from Calcutta - College Street. 

This covers 14 stories. 

1. Kabuliwallah

In the story there are three examples of filial affection—the narrator and his daughter Mini; the Kabuliwala "Rahmat" and his own daughter in Afghanistan; and the Rahmat "Kabuliwala" and Mini. In this story Rahmat comes to India every year to sell dry-fruits and to meet this girl named Mini. He had a physical altercation with a person while collecting debts and was imprisoned. After several years, he was pardoned and was released from jail. He returned to meet Mini at her house on her wedding day, but she had grown up and did not recognize him. Her father, however, gave him some money so he could visit his own daughter. 

1. Postmaster

For his first job, the Postmaster is assigned to work in the village of Ulapur, a quiet backwater with an indigo factory. He feels sorely out of place in the village, feeling both too sophisticated as a Calcutta man amongst uneducated villagers, and needlessly arrogant to the very people who he might turn to, hoping for friendship.

For lack of anything better to do, the Postmaster takes to writing poetry about his scenic surroundings, pontificating on rain-soaked leaves and the like as a way to express his deepest sorrows. Since he doesn’t make much money, the Postmaster cooks for himself and enlists a young orphan girl named Ratan to help him with housework in exchange for some food.

One night while Ratan is preparing his hookah, the Postmaster asks her to describe her family. This begins a relationship where the two share intimate details about their families, with the Postmaster divulging how much he misses his mother and sister back in Calcutta. The rapport develops to such an extent that Ratan starts to consider the Postmaster’s family her own.

One day while watching a bird in a tree, the Postmaster is taken by a desperate need for female companionship, for someone who he could share this sighting of a bird with. He calls Ratan into his office and informs her that he’s going to teach her how to read. These lessons continue until the Postmaster falls ill and he grows unable and unwilling to continue. Ratan, regardless, practices what he has taught her. Fed up with the village and his illness, the Postmaster applies for a transfer and is denied.

Nonetheless, he quits the job to return home, and tells Ratan as much. Ratan begs him to take her with him, but he smugly tells her that’s impossible. He promises her that the next Postmaster will take care of her, but that does nothing to comfort her. Upon leaving, he tries to give Ratan money, but she refuses.

As the Postmaster is leaving, he is struck by a feeling that he should go back and take Ratan, but concludes that life is full of separations and endings, so what’s the point? Ratan doesn’t have the same view though, and holds out, in anguish, for the possibility that the Postmaster will return to take her to Calcutta.

1. Homecoming

The story is told from the perspective of a fourteen-year-old adolescent boy, describing the hardships he faces. The themes of strife and love in Phatik’s life are at the center of this tale. Minor themes also include a teenage boy’s feelings of isolation and responsibility.

Phatik, a naughty and fun-loving fourteen-year-old boy, has developed a reputation for it. His younger brother Makhan sat on the log in front of him when he was with other village lads to agitate him. Phatik warns that if he doesn’t go, he would shove him to the ground. However, this threat is ignored. Phatik pushes the log off while swallowing his fright because he couldn’t lose face in front of the other boys. Makhan beats Phatik out of hatred despite being hurt. When Makhan gets home, he instantly tells his mother the lies. His mother shares his convictions. Before a stranger who turns out to be the mother’s brother comes, Phatik punches his sibling out of rage. His mother gives her consent for his uncle, Bishmaber, to bring Phatik to Calcutta with him so that he can receive an education. His mother was only too willing to concur. His mother was troubled by his presence since she constantly feared that he might end up endangering Makhan. She becomes upset, though, because Phatik is just as eager to escape. Calcutta wasn’t any better, though. He wasn’t loved by his aunt. He was considered a bother by others. He was unhappy. He yearned to return home. Phatik had a terrible time in school as well. He was unable to fit in or win over the teachers. He finally finds the confidence, out of desperation, to ask his uncle when he could return home. The only response from his uncle was that he could come back during the holidays. He misplaces his book one day, and as a result, his aunt and fellow students scold him and correct him. The following day when he gets home, Phatik attempts to get away. He is however caught in a downpour and has a serious malarial cold. Unable to locate him, his uncle reported him to the police. He receives more criticism once the cops track him down and bring him home. He sobs, unable to take it any longer.

Phatik begs his mother not to beat him in a fever-induced hallucination, even as he longs to go back home. Tagore sharply criticizes society’s treatment of teens when he notes that not a single person made an effort to comprehend the emotional pain he was experiencing. Even if his mother seemed to regret her choices after the novel, it is too late to undo the suffering her son had to go through. Phatik’s mother forbids him from entering his early teens. Perhaps for this reason, she is happy to have Bishambar take him to Calcutta. It is clear to the reader that Phatik’s mother is powerless to control him. She is to blame for something, not Phatik.

The conclusion of the story is especially intriguing because it makes it plain to the reader that Phatik is insane as a result of his disease. He thinks that the holidays (October) have arrived when he sees his mother. However, everyone in the room is aware that Phatik is dying and is in critical condition. What was once a healthy youngster has in such a short time turned into a weak wreck. It’s possible that Tagore was implying that Phatik shouldn’t have been removed from his familiar village setting. Some kids will be successful in the city or at school. That kind of character was not Phatik. Despite being a lover of nature, he passed away in Calcutta’s walls. Bishambar cannot be held responsible for what occurred, though. He was merely attempting to assist Phatik. The two mothers that appear in the story cannot be claimed to be the same. Both Phatik’s mother, who was impatient and eager to get rid of Phatik, and Bishambar’s wife, who thought Phatik was just a clumsy small child. whom she truly wanted nothing to do with.

1. Master Mashai

The father of the young man lives from the interest on money he inherited from his family. Until, somewhat late in life, his wife finally has a child, a son, he is very tight with his money. Gradually he gets used to spending money on his son. He hires a distinquished tutor but a riff develops between the tutor and his son.

One day the son of one of the families cooks brings her son to work. The father finds out young man is an accomplished scholar and he offers him a job as live in tutor. His son and tutor bond, the boy calls him “Master Mashai”.

A lot will happen, much of it very sad, as the plot advances and the boy ages.

1. Once there was a King

When we were children there was no need to know who the king in the fairy story was. It didn't matter whether he was called Shiladitya or Shaliban, whether he lived at Kashi or Kanauj. The thing that made a seven-year-old boy's heart go thump, thump with delight was this one sovereign truth, this reality of all realities: "Once there was a king. The theme of innocence radiates through the delicate tapestry of the narrative. Recounted by an unnamed narrator reflecting upon his childhood, the story delves into the realm of innocence through the lens of storytelling, escapism, and respect.

1. The Baby

Part One of My Lord The Baby begins with a twelve-year-old boy named Raicharan. He leaves his village and enters the home and service of a man who shares the same caste as Raicharan. Raicharan becomes the private servant of the man’s so, Anukul. From birth up until the day that the boy leaves for college, he is Anukul’s personal attendant.

After Anukul marries, he makes Raicharan the servant of his new son, who is called The Little Master in the story. Raicharan takes pride in his work and finds great pleasure in the child. The story contains several passages in which the reader sees Raicharan’s joy in reading to the boy.

When the child begins to walk, it is an “epoch in human history.” He plays with the child night and day. When it utters the words “Ba-ba,” “Ma-ma,” and “Chan-na” (this is what the baby calls Raicharan), “Raicharan’s ecstasy knew no bounds.”

Anukul buys a small go-cart for his son, and drapes him in silks and finery, including golden ornaments, bracelets, and more. When the rainy season approaches, the child is dreadfully bored while confined indoors. One day, on which the rain has lifted, Raicharan puts him in the cart and pulls him down to the riverbank.

The boy sees a lovely tree covered in flowers, and Raicharan can tell that he wants one. He tries to distract the boy by showing him birds and various other diversions, but the child is intractable. Finally, Raicharan asks him to stay in the cart, forbids him from going to the water, and wades in to get the flower. When he returns, the child is missing.

When evening comes and Raicharan has not returned with the child, Anukul and the mother go out searching. They find Raicharan running along the banks, calling out “Little Master!” over and over, heartbroken. Under questioning, he says that he knows nothing about what happened. They promise him anything if he will tell them, but he has no answers. He is sent from the house. The mother tells Anukul that she suspects that Raicharan had stolen the child, possibly to sell it to the gypsies, who were also rumored to be in the area at the same time. “The baby had gold ornaments on his body,” she says. It is enough to convince her.

In Part Two, Raicharan returns to his village. His wife bears him a son named Phailna and then dies. Raicharan initially feels an intense resentment of the child, feeling that it someone intends to replace the little master who was so recently lost. He feels extreme guilt at the prospect of being happy about his own child in the aftermath of such tragedy.

Soon he is as affectionate and loving with his own son as he ever was with the little master. However, there is an unsettling development. As the baby develops, begins to walk, and to do all of things that babies do, Raicharan is reminded of the little master. His son’s actions seem uncannily similar, and he manages to convince himself that it is the little master, reincarnated in his own home. He considers the following three facts “beyond dispute:”

I. The new baby was born soon after his little master’s death.

II. His wife could never have accumulated such merit as to give birth to a son in middle age.

III. The new baby walked with a toddle and called out Ba-ba and Ma-ma.

The logic is far from ironclad, but he remembers that the mother accused him of stealing her child. If this is truly the little master reincarnated, he feels that he deserves her accusation.

In the final sequence of the story, Raicharan begins spoiling Phailna just as Anukul did for the little master. He spends money he does not have to clothe him in satin, and send him to fine schools. When he visits Phailna, the other students are amused by his country manners and they wonder how the elegant Phailna could have such a bumpkin for a father.

Soon Phailna is asking for more money and there is nothing Raicharan can give him. He visits the city where Anukul is practicing as a magistrate and tells him that he lied about the little master. He had kept him all along and now wishes to make it right. Anukul is suspicious of the claim, as there is no proof that Phailna is the little master. However, his wife’s reaction makes it irrelevant. She accepts the child whole-heartedly, believing that he is hers, and they send Raicharan away.

The story ends with Anukul sending money to Raicharan’s village, but there is no longer anyone there with that name.

My Lord The Baby, and many of Tagore’s other short stories, is a precursor to sprawling stories of Indian families such as Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance and many of the novels of Salman Rushdie. Its central themes are duty—particularly the duty to one’s master and one’s son and father—and sacrifice.

1. Vision

It describes the situations where wife has to sacrifice her own desires for the husband's happiness. It comments on Indian customs and traditions. It studies the relations between husband and wife and the unsaid expectations of the husband from his wife.

1. Living or dead?

‘The Living and the Dead’ is a focus on the theme of death. The story is based on Kadambini’s family with unfortunate set of incidents and circumstances. The friendship between Kadambini and Jogamaya make the story fresh in the minds of the readers. 

The story begins with the introduction of Sharadashankar Babu’s family, the Zamindar of Ranihat in which there is a young widow called Kadambini. She had no living relatives on her father’s side and even her in-laws family too. All of them have died one by one sooner or later. There was only a nephew – her brother-in-law Shardashanker’s son who was an apple of Kadambini’s eyes. Soon after the death of the child’s mother, Kadambini looked after the child as if it was her own son. All the affections were bestowed on the child until one were on the child until one monsoon night Kadambini died.

Without making undue ceremony to the departed soul, the dead body was sent straight away to the cremation ground by the employing four Brahmin labourers of Sharadashankar. Though the Ranihat cremation ground was far away from the town, it consisted of little hut beside a pond and a banyan tree. The four men assigned for the cremation work waited for the pyre wood to be brought. After too long waiting, two of them departed to see what the cause for the delay was. Only Bindu was left before the corpse when Banamali had gone to the town to fetch tobacco.

In the midst of the thick clouds and lightening and raining Bindu had experienced something unusual – the littar on which the dead body was placed began to move. In terror Bindu had run off to the village leaving the corpse in the hut itself. All the four employees came back to the cremation ground and found that the corpse was missing and the litter was empty. The four members have decided to report to the Zamindar that the body had indeed been cremated. Here Tagore asserts the truth that dead person revitalizing life again. The ghost of Kadambini was regaining conscious stage. Very often she constantly thinks about her affectionate child and was ready to go home. The next moment she considers that since she was no longer alive, her family members could not accepted her. Moreover, they would be surprised to see Kadambini’s ghost coming back. She recalled to her memory Sharadashanker’s brightly lit home and compared her present solitariness in this dark and dissolute place of death.

Kadambini started going on and on till her feet ached and body felt week and exhausted. She crossed field after field with the first loght of dawn. She reached a nearby village. Kadambini with her muddy clothes, rapt state and crazed sleepless appearance, faced man coming up to her and he enquired her and her family. Suddenly she thought about her childhood friend – jogmaya the best and the dearest friend. She told the stranger that she had to go to Shripati charman Babu’s house of Nischindipura. The gentleman agreed that anyhow on his way to Calcutta Nischindrapura was a shortdistance. So he decided to escort Kadambini to Shripati’s house.

Jogamaya was pleased to see her friend after a long gap. The two friends exchanged a few words and Kadambaini pleaded before Jogamaya to provide a place in a corner of her house and accept her as a maid. For a month’s stay in Jogamaya’s house, Shripati Charman – Jogamaya’s husband wanted to know all about the illtrated childless widow – Kadambini and her in-laws. So he decided to proceed to Ranihat and make personnal enquires about Kadambini. 

In the course of the two friends’ conversation, Jogamaya strongly announced that keeping custody of a married woman of another household doesn’t look nice. So Jogamaya had decided to send her out in the absence of her husband for which Kadambini though strongly refused to go, yet she simply moved away with a pensive expression. 

Shripati returned home late at night and narrated the whole story of a Kadambini that Jofgamaya old friend was dead. The husband and wife went on arguing for a long time unti they came to know that Kadambini was there in the next room. Shripati mentioned before his wife that the evening before Kadambini’s arrival to their house, the door swung open and the sudden gust of wind blew out the lamp. In the darkness Kadambini entered into the house of Jogmaya when there was continuous outpouring of rain. She addressed to Jogamaya that her friend Kadambini is no longer alive but she is dead. Having said this she left the house and proceeded to Ranihat. She hid all day in a ruined temple hungry alone. An untimely dusk spread over the monsoon sky and the villagers hurried home far the fear of approaching storm. She entered into her married home with fully veiled and the servants of the house let her pass. In the midst of heavy rains and buffeting wind Kadambini slipped past the women and entered the room where the sick boy, Sathish was fast asleep. The sick boy turned over and asked his Kakima for water for which Kadambini felt very happy to see that he child asking for the aunt. With great rejoice she hurriedly poured out a glass of water and helped him to drink. The child put his arms round her neck and asked ‘Kakima were you dead. Kakima go away”. He screamed.

Kadambini realized that she was not really dead. She pleaded before Didi (Shardashankar’s wife) why are all of you frightened to see me? “ I am what I always was” As a result the mistress of the house fell sown and fainted. At the moment Sharadashankar appeared and pleaded before Kadambini that why all this? Satish is the only son of ours why have you cast your evil eye on him? Kadambini made it clear that she was mot dead proving tae bell metal bowl as the evidence that she was alive. She struck it against her head repeatedly and as a result blood poured out. Kadambini only screaming that she was not dead. Not and not dead. She ran out of the room and down stairs and threw herself into the backyard pond. From upstairs room Sharadashankar heard the splash.

1. The Skeleton
2. The Trust Property
3. Subha
4. The river Stairs
5. My Fair Neighbour
6. The Kingdom of Cards