Four Stories from Tagore

Book excerpt: A towering figure of the Bengal Renaissance, Tagore s influence on Bagla literature has still not diminished. During a long and creative career, he excelled in the different art forms that he practised-poetry, drama, music, novels and short stories. In 1901, he founded Shantiniketan (Adobe of Peace), in Bolpur near Kolkata, an educational institution where education was to be imparted in an unrestricted manner. He was the first Indian to win the Nobel Prize in 1913, for his poetic work Gitanjali (An Offering of Songs) which he himself had translated into English from his various volumes of poetry. He was knighted in 1915, but returned Bagh massacre of 1919. He died in 1941, heartbroken by a number of personal tragedies and disillusioned by the outbreak of the Second World War in Europe. Through primarily remembered as a poet, Tagore s short stories have earned a pride in modern Bangla literature. The stories in this collection are respresentative of Tagore s writings. We find the empathy of a father for a stranger in The Kabuliwala, the sorrow of parting in The Postmaster, the comic in When Wishes Come True and the social divide that riches cause in The Return Gift.