THE POSTMASTER – RABINDRANATH TAGORE,
SUMMARY
INTRODUCTION:
“The Postmaster,” a story by Rabindranath Tagore,( 1861-1941) a gifted Indian writer and thinker, achieved a world-wide reputation when he as awarded the Nobel Prize. The Postmaster is a story of a city-bred young man forced to live in a remote village. Necessity drove him to spend his evenings in the company of a simple orphan girl Ratan.
CONTENT:
The Postmaster short story is about an unnamed postmaster who was transfered to a remote post office in a small rural Indian village. The village was near a factory, and the owner of the factory where Englishmen. The postmaster was from the huge city of Calcutta and feels out of place in such a distant rural village. The post office seems to contain only two rooms: the office itself, and the postmaster’s living quarters made of “thatched shed” near a stagnant pond circled by thick foliage.
The workers in the nearby factory were so much busy with their work that they have no time to make friendship with anyone. Besides, they were not good company for “decent folk.” In addition, people from Calcutta were not particularly good at socializing. They appear to be arrogant or uncomfortable. In any case, the postmaster had few companions, and he does not have many activities to keep him occupied.
Occasionally he tried to write a bit of poetry. The rural landscape have inspired the kind of happy poetry he sought to compose. But the postmaster is uninterested in the landscape and would be happy if it were replaced by a paved road and numerous tall buildings. His salary was not great; so, he had to cook his own food and would share his suppers with Ratan – an orphan girl of the village. She did odd jobs for the Postmaster. In the evening, when the village was filled with appealing sights and sounds, the postmaster lights his lamp and called for Ratan.
Ratan, who has been waiting for the nightly call, typically asks whether she has indeed been called. She then routinely lights the fire needed for cooking. The postmaster tells her to wait till he smoke his pipe, which Ratan always lights for him. The postmaster used to talk with Ratan while smoking. He asked Ratan about her early life which She loved to share with him . The postmaster himself recalls his home, his mother and sister and discuss about them with Ratan.
She used to call the Postmaster “Dada” meaning ‘elder brother’. She obeyed her master. The postmaster taught her how to read. Ratan begins to learn about double consonants. They develop a bond of trust and friendship. They have meals together and Ratan runs small errands for the postmaster.
One day, postmaster falls ill due to the showers of the season. Ratan took care of him like a mother when he was sick. She sat beside him the whole night during the time until he was cured completely. The Postmaster decided to apply for a transfer back to Calcutta. His application for transfer gets rejected, thus he resigns from the job.
Finally the time came when our postmaster decided to return to his city. Ratan was deeply hurt but didn’t express it. She asked him to take her with him to his city. He laughed at her request. While leaving he offered her his entire salary but Ratan denied it and ran away crying. The kind gesture made her cry! She wandered about the post office with tears trickling down her cheeks. Poor Ratan! Her affection was not reciprocated. At the end, Ratan gets heart-broken to know that her master left her forever.
CONCLUSION:
This short story was full of pathos and moves the readers to tears. This story shows the difficulties which a city person faces when migrate to the remote place and the life of an orphan girl Ratan whose life is full of numberless meetings and partings. She knew no philosophy of life. Her fondness for the postmaster may be regarded as a one sided affection of a thirteen year old girl which indeed was selfless and innocent.
A woman’s heart is indeed difficult to understand!
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