Selected Stories of Rabindranath Tagore

by Rabindranath Tagore

This collection contains some of the best stories of Tagore who put India on the literary map of the world. Translated from Bengali to English, these stories depict the human condition in its many forms: innocence and childhood, love and loss, the city and the village, the natural and the supernatural. Prominent among the stories are the famous The Cabuliwallah, which has also been adapted as a movie. The book also gives an insight into the socio-economic conditions prevalent in Colonial Bengal.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Classics, India, Indian Literature, Literature, Nobel Prize

208 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2012

About the author

Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 "because of his profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse, by which, with consummate skill, he has made his poetic thought, expressed in his own English words, a part of the literature of the West."

Tagore modernised Bengali art by spurning rigid classical forms and resisting linguistic strictures. His novels, stories, songs, dance-dramas, and essays spoke to topics political and personal. Gitanjali (Song Offerings), Gora (Fair-Faced), and Ghare-Baire (The Home and the World) are his best-known works, and his verse, short stories, and novels were acclaimed—or panned—for their lyricism, colloquialism, naturalism, and unnatural contemplation. His compositions were chosen by two nations as national anthems: India's Jana Gana Mana and Bangladesh's Amar Shonar Bangla.

The complete works of Rabindranath Tagore (রবীন্দ্র রচনাবলী) in the original Bengali are now available at these third-party websites:
http://www.tagoreweb.in/
http://www.rabindra-rachanabali.nltr....

Reviews

[Sanjay · Rating 5 out of 5]

The prose of Tagore is mesmerizing which makes you feel enchanted; and often gives you a dose of refreshment. Its beauty lies in the profound insights conveyed in very simple words. Nearly all the stories touch you somewhere deep but it was the story 'Cabulliwalah' that was quite moving for me.

[Jan-Maat]

I found this an engaging and lively collection of short stories, I had never read Tagore before, I knew he had won the Nobel prize, and I had the feeling that he was more renowned for his poetry, these stories though felt vital and fresh despite being over a hundred years old, perhaps because they are strongly character driven.

Most of the stories began with him introducing one or two characters and unfold through their interactions, the time and the place of the setting mostly Bengal in the 1890s did not feel to be hugely significant and despite (or maybe because) his opposition to British occupation and empire the British seemed to me mostly evident though their absence, his rural Bengal is possibly timeless or slightly removed from the pace of the 1890s in some ways, a few stories take place in Kolkata but mostly they are in the countryside and deal with village life where the big news is about relations between landlord and tenant, fathers and sons, mothers in law and daughters in law.

The stories tend to be political rather than Political, touching on social and economic issues - child marriage, dowries, inheritance, at the time Tagore was writing these stories he was running the families ancestral estates, and reading these tales I could imagine him doing a lot of listening, hearing the stories that people told and the problems that were on their minds, I did not get the feeling that he was much inspired by the landscape or by his family roots.

In this collection there are thirty stories over 263 or so pages, I do not have enough fingers and toes to work out the average length, but none of these stories is particularly long, Tagore is frequently ironic, my smile to page ratio was pretty good, I am familiar with short stories having a twist at the end but Tagore seemed to prefer a snap -a sudden death or disappearance as though human nature meant that there might be thesis and antithesis, but that synthesis is too much to expect in human life.

Thee was a huge variety of stories, realistic ones dealing with social issues, to the supernatural. Dignity I felt was the most common theme, human dignity, the struggle of an individual to assert or maintain dignity, to how dignity is bruised, damaged or denied through a variety of inequalities.

[Mrinmayi]

Apparently, the Main Character in one of the stories is named Mrinmayi!!!!
I don't know about you guys BUT I have NEVER in my entire life read MY name in either books OR films
BUT they adapted the book in a series on Netflix named Stories by Rabindranath Tagore

Episode 12 and 13 is named "Samaapti{Conclusion}"
The protagonist and I share the same name!!!

TBH...when I saw the adaptation...I was more happy to HEAR the actors PRONOUNCE my name correctly xD🤣😂

This is me IRL☝

This has happened ONLY ONCE
The aunty who said it right is still my fav aunty!!#respect


My friend saw this series first and recommended it to me
She said that this episode had a "surprise"
Soooo when the "Love Interest " said "Mrinmayi" ...I was like....

https://youtu.be/gB-evlal_cM?t=796
Listen to him say my name CORRECTLY!!! *happy tears*
Another instance where the MC's mother says her name!!
https://youtu.be/gB-evlal_cM?t=1014
*sobbing happily*
Now you ALL know how to say my name!! I have NO IDEA why I am SOOOOO excited about this!! (You guys knowing how my name sounds makes me happy!!!!..IDK why!!)
maybe it's my MBTI(I am ENFP)

I am gonna blame my MBTI for my excitement level over this series!!


BUT after watching the show...I am EVEN MORE excited to READ IT!!!!
The show has subtitles..so you can watch it... even if you don't know Hindi!!
BUT I am still gonna tell you about episode 12 and 13!!! *excited babbling*

🌟So this series is a collection of short stories
Episode 12 & 13 revolve around Mrinmayi and Apurba *giggling*
I just want to start by saying that I found Mrinmayi to be verrrrrrry relatable (It sounds weird to say or write your own name in review ngl )
I mean the reaction Apurba's mother has after knowing that he wants to marry her(Mrinmayi) was *chefs Kiss*

Bahu= Daughter-in-law
*Mrin pretends to NOT know how to make a round roti *😎#Staysingle4eva

🌟Ummm..ok back to review
Apparently, Mrinmayi(in this series) is too loud, an extrovert, loves spending her time getting into mischief, makes jokes, is kinda immature(?), loves her family more than her crush, is hungry 24/7 xD

Can someone count the no. of times I wrote "Mrinmayi" in this review ??!😂
hmm..so now Mrinmayi pulls a prank on Apurba *High fives Mrinmayi*
Apurba is a calm, mature, and "serious" person
He falls in love with Mrinmayi *Mrin in the background: You gonna regret this dude😂*
Here's an extract I got from one of the review sites:

His conscious decision to marry this
unusual Mrinmayi shatters his mother’s hope for a calm and quite daughter-inlaw

She is a Mrinmayi...HOW THE HECK CAN SHE BE QUITE??!!*shouts this sentence*


🌟Now this book is set in the 1900s soooo during that time women had little to no rights
Since Apurba is in "lurve" with Mrinmayi...he decides to get married to her

NO ONE asks Mrinmayi if SHE wants to get married!!!
Now Mrin was pissed IRL...so was the Mrinmayi in the series



🌟What I appreciated was the way the story portrays the power structure during that time period
How the Men had more say in a woman's future than the woman herself
We see Apurba NOT realizing that he basically manipulated her into the marriage
BUT we see an AWESOME character arc!!
Look...During their first night Mrinmayi destroys their bed lol

She refuses to spend her life with someone she does not even know

Now Apurba is SHOCKED that Mrinmayi doesn't love him back*facepalms*
But Mrinmayi is like, "No instant love for me dude!!"
And trust me this is the slowest slow burn romance you can get!!
I have to admit that I felt *slightly* bad for Apurba
Cause WE could SEE👀 that he loved her BUT just like Mrinmayi even I was skeptical of him
He proved me wrong though!!
He was indeed a good person!!
He waited for sooooo many months !!
And the "groveling" he did was *double chefs kiss*
Well...you see...Mrinmayi is really close to her father (Can relate girl)
She wants to visit him BUT her evil mother-in-law wouldn't let her go!!

Now Apurba takes Mrinmayi to her dad against his mom's wishes (He basically faces the wrath of his own mother for her!!)
And the time they spend with her father was just sooo adorable!!
I think that's when Mrinmayi and Mrin ..both realized that he is worth a chance
but eventually, Mrinmayi and Mrin..both fall for him *sighs*


🌟We have in this series something REALLY important i.e. a Woman's consent
I see MANY books and shows skip that even NOW!!
But we see how Apurba respects her decision...
WAITS for her faithfully !!
Gonna be honest here...I thought he would cheat BUT he stays loyal FOREVER!!
Even after Mrinmayi says she HATES him!! I know this sounds like having very low standards BUT soo many books have men cheating that these kinda men feel rare!!!
Did I mention Apurba is a Bibliophile ??!! (He gets brownie points for that!!)

Basically Mrinmayi and Mrin at the beginning

My ONLY complaint was that Apurba kept calling her Mrinu ...(I DON'T like this nickname!!)
Idk..Mrinu sounds waaaay too intimate xD

Ohhh..and other concern was the ending
We see that Mrinmayi has finally "calmed down" and her mother- in- law LOVES her all of a sudden SMH
It felt like a Bollywood movie IMO
I mean Mrinmayi is still loud and extrovert BUT it felt like gave up her fun side
Suddenly she became the "ideal" daughter-in-law
And ONLY THEN did her mother in law like her!!
I mean..I KNOW that you have to behave like a "mature" person after some time BUT you don't give up your OG self!!
But we are talking about the 1900s
So in hindsight, it was a realistic ending for THAT time period
I still enjoyed these episodes though !!
Apurba is going on my book boyfriend list!!


Mrinmayi's expression while getting married xD😂

Apurba waiting patiently after Mrinmayi ran away😱🤣

Apurba excited about marriage while Mrinmayi just wants to go back home

I know this review is of the series rather than the book BUT I still wrote it
this review is special for ME
If you read this Thank you!!😊🤗

[Majenta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you very much for the recommendation, Akrabar! What a lovely book.

[Corinne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful collection of short stories. Although the stories are somewhat driven by fates, the protagonists are original in their actions, and the themes linger in mind long after I put them down. Tagore has great insight in human psyche and behavior

[Rahul Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those who like poetry and quotes, you cannot go wrong with one of India's most famous "the Bard of Bengal"-Rabindranath Tagore.
Not much about him but he became the first Non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 and wrote two nation's national anthems(India and Bangladesh).

A few quotes from him:

"Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky."

"I slept and dreamt that life was a joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was a joy."

"You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water."

"The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough."

"Death is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come."

"Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark."

"Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the tip of a leaf."

"Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man."

"Don't limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time."

"Trees are the earth's endless effort to speak to the listening heaven."


Simple and short, such timeless meaning and a universal appeal to it!!!

[J.G. Keely · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection has a very strong start: the first few stories are gems, just wonderfully-well crafted, evocative, sympathetic tales of life. There are humorous clever bits and heartbreaking bits, and it all has the ring of truth about it. I kept getting hints of this in The Home and The World, but Tagore couldn't seem to sustain it.

Unfortunately, that proves to be true here, as well, as several of the stories don't quite come together, and get hung-up on clumsy construction. My previous complaint with Tagore was about his habit of just telling us (or having the characters tell us) the subtext, instead of actually letting it play out in dialogue and action.

The plot and actions of a character are not what give them personality--it's how they do things that makes them unique. After all, there are endless books that share roughly the same plot, for example the Hero's Journey story of a young, inexperienced man who goes out into the world and, with the help of his wise mentor, defeats a great threat and returns older and wiser. Some of these stories are dull and vapid, others are engrossing and fascinating--so it's not the mere litany of facts, but the way in which they are shown to us.

Most stories have subtext: a meaning that's never quite stated outright, but which becomes obvious through the relationships as they are depicted. So, in one of Tagore's stories, we have a girl who can't speak, and the story is about the difficulty of her life. There's a great concept for a bit of subtext in the story, but the way Tagore delivered it was very disappointing.

In the opening paragraphs, we are told:

"her mother looked upon her as a deformity in herself."

That would be a very poignant way of looking at the relationship--except that when the author just blandly states it instead of actually showing it in action, it loses a great deal of its strength. Then, Tagore ends the paragraph:

"Her mother regarded her with aversion as a stain upon her own body."

So, not only is the story's subtext just blandly laid out for the reader, it's done so twice in the same paragraph. This is the kind of sloppy execution that makes a lot of Tagore's writing disappointing, especially when other sections are crafted with so much more skill and care.

It's certainly well worth reading for the number of excellent stories that it contains, but as a whole, it's uneven.

[Chaitali Chakraborty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a Bengali, and have read all these stories in Bengali language. When I read the same in English, I had a thought passing. There are some expressions that are innate and inherent to one specific language. No other language in the entire world can capture the exact emotion. I love his work.Although, I enjoyed reading the same in my language better, nevertheless a book that would open the ajar door of Bengali emotions completely. I guess my other Bengali friends would feel the same.

[Sherry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just joined the Iconic India challenge in the History Group. And this is one I chose to read. One of India's greatest writers, he captures a feeling of the life of India in his stories. Much like Anton Chekhov does for Russia. He tells his stories without judgement. We are left to draw our own conclusions. Unlike the west, death in this framework is never the end to be avoided. There is a gentle fatalism that is not devoid of hope. People can change, sometimes they do and sometimes they don't and whichever way it goes is just the way it goes. I loved the stories, they have a simple beauty, full of deep understanding of and compassion for the human condition.

[Anya]

Watching tv during dinner is a family ritual in our house. I generally stay away from tv, but tv during dinner time is sacred to me.

So these days, the 'rents and I have been watching Stories by Rabindranath Tagore and they are so lovely in their quaintness that it makes me weep. (I just had a good weepfest while watching Kabuliwaala) I have read a couple of these stories as a child but they were scattered over the years so I don't remember much. I grew up in West Bengal so I had become fluent in Bangla by the time we moved to Uttar Pradesh. But I don't remember a lick of it. I wish I could read the original text. :c

[Megha Chakraborty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thid book doesn't need any review. The story never gets old. So many emotions. Genius Genius man.

[Shikha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tagore has won my heart since childhood with his timeless short stories and poems. His stories do not follow any particular pattern or theme yet it is consistently mind pleasing. The vibrancy of themes and plots makes it so fresh to read each time. I am pretty sure I have read this book earlier in my childhood, yet I have the impulse to read it again every time I lay my hands on. The beauty also lies in the unexpected yet the simplest turn of plots in the stories. Tagore successfully expresses simple thing in the simplest manner possible. The simplicity and the commonness of the stories make it so gripping to read.

There is no heavy truth, no harsh realities and no difficult lessons, just simple stories! And that's the beauty!

A must read for teenagers and everyone elder to teenagers!

[Muthuanand · Rating 5 out of 5]

One word -Ineffable.

[EstelleLiterature · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although Tagore is best known for his "Home and the World" and "Geetanjali", I find this collection of short stories more humanizing. Each story captures a side of the human spirit that can be labeled as neither good nor bad, just humane. He wrote these stories while traveling on his boathouse as a tax collector, an idle work that left him hours to ponder on nature, not just of Earth but also of humans.

My favorite in this collection is The Guest: a free-spirited boy, going with the life's flow, loving nature and charming humans along the way, getting caught by a girl's passion, breaking himself free and moving back to nature. Sounds so much like Tagore himself when he was a young adult.

[Amitava Das · Rating 5 out of 5]

First off - I can understand the indignation of the well - read Russian , French , or Italian people when we (not speaking their native tongue ) fail to sometimes appreciate the genuis of a Chekhov or a Flaubert or a Tomasi di Lampedusa, or when we fail to find those fine nuances in the screenplay of a Tarkovsky or a Renoir or a Rossellini classic. Because , sometimes , if not always , those fine details, that subtle twist in the word , sentence or colloquial form gets invariably lost in translation. It is the worse for regional languages like Bengali , in which Tagore wrote , since there are simply no great translators around who could do a justice to these stories as Steegmuller did for Flaubert , or Mirra Ginsberg did for Bulgakov or recently , what Breon Mitchell has been doing for Kafka.

It is this woeful state of translation that renders Tagore’s short stories , which I would place in an even higher pedestal than those by Chekhov - usually regarded as the greatest short story writer of all time by the Anglophone world - merely good , sometimes great , but not as examples of supreme artistic mastery of the short story form, which they really are.

Tagore’s stories , in their experimentation with form and content , in their playfulness with all kinds of literary techniques , in their razor sharp portrayal of people and places and social milieu, in their devastating satire of traditional values , in their empathy for the most wretched of characters and situations , in their panoptical assessment of the human condition - are simply amongst the handful of literary creations that should be preserved for posterity in a special bunker immune to the ravages of time alongside Shakespeare’s first folio or Dante’s Divine Comedy.

[vaishnavi ☆ﾟ⁠.⁠* · Rating 5 out of 5]

Happy birthday Gurudev🌿

originally read in 9th grade! reading this for class was such a core memory. our English teacher (ms. Rose we love you!! 🫶🏻🫶🏻) made every story come alive, and the whole class was so involved!

we even used our extra class hours to perform a play based on some of the stories. I vividly remember some of my friends acting out The Hungry Stones - hilarious and peak school nostalgia 🥹 we would bring what we had at home to use as props and do improv if we forgot the lines 😂

The Cabuliwallah probably hit the hardest. of course, none of us cried in class. I only cried when I reread it later at home 😭🫶🏻

[Meghana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short stories are my least favourite genre of literature. That's because so few authors get it right. My favourites include R.K. Narayan, Saki, O'Henry, and Jhumpa Lahiri.

After reading this book, I have no hesitation in adding Rabindranath Tagore to the list. I had read The Kabuliwalla nearly a decade ago, and it remains one of my favourite stories of all time. Like many others, I also enjoyed reading The Postmaster, but my personal favourite find was The Return Of The Child.

Tagore has a gift for sketching memorable, luminous characters using the limited medium of the short story, and this book is extremely gripping. However, the undertow of melancholy and death in this book is rather depressing.

[Avinash · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every story in this collection is beautiful and unique in its own way. They all carry a certain set of emotions along with some life lessons. I think they have done a perfect justice in depicting THE India of Tagore's era without any prejudice or manipulation. They give you the glimpse of the beauty this country had that time, but at the same time they also portray the flaw in it.

As I said every story has something to offer but my favorites are "The Postmaster", "Kabuliwallah" and "Guest".

In short a book that everyone should read in my opinion, whether you are a big fan of short stories or not. Hopefully it will not disappoint you.

[Nazish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just finished this beautiful, fresh, sensitive collection of short stories for which Tagore holds so much ground and rightly so. He talks about loving fathers, songs of nature, hardworking young men fighting the family honour and empty vaults with smile on their faces and poverty and humanity in the streets of Calcutta. Must read to get a brief glimpse of Tagore's literary world.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing short stories which bridge time and space as only real classics can do. Subtle characterizations, painful insights and light irony - need to read more of this.

[MT · Rating 5 out of 5]

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- ชอบอ่านงานจิตตกแบบนี้มากๆ หลายๆคนคงอ่านนสเพื่อหนีจากความจริง แต่เราชอบเสพงานที่ความจริงมีอยู่ทุกที่แม้แต่ในเรื่องแต่ง 5555 ซึ่งการตีแสกหน้าความจริงของงานแกมันดูเหมือนงานสัจนิยมทั่วไป แต่มันก็ไม่อย่างนั้นเสียทีเดียว คือวัฒนธรรมอินเดียมันcultivatedมากๆ จนทำให้งานสัจนิยมแบบนี้มันมีความเปร่งๆแปลกๆบางอย่างอยู่ มันจริงแต่มันไม่เมค เซนเลย ซึ่งสิ่งเหล่านี้จะปรากฎอยู่ในตลคหญิงทุกคนในเรื่องนี้ ที่ชะตากรรมชีวิตสาหัสสาการมากๆ คือมันไม่ใช่งานสัจนิยมเพียวๆอย่างThe Interperter of Meladiesของคุณจุมปาอะไรแบบนั้น มันหนักกว่านั้นมาก
- ชอบสำนวนแปลมากเลย คือเขาแปลแบบแห้งๆดี ไม่ได้ใส่สีตีไข่อะไรมาก แปลแบบตรงไปตรงมา ปกติเราไม่ควรชอบ แต่เรื่องนี้เวิร์คมากๆ
- บังเอิญดีที่ตอนอ่าน ก็มีเวอร์ชั่นไทยออกมาพอดี ฉะนั้นถ้ามีโอกาสอ่านก็อ่านกันครับ

[Daya Srinivas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written

[Hana]

I've been watching Anurag Basu's adaptation of Tagore's short stories on Netflix. The acting and cinematography are superb but after only one episode I'm feeling quite lost. As a traveler who loved the days before GPS and global homogenization I relish the feeling. Perhaps reading Tagore's stories will clue me in to the complex family history.

[Laura Norton-Cruz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I highly recommend to anyone who has not yet read Tagore to read his short stories. I am not even sure that the one here is the same collection of short stories I read--I read the ones that he wrote in 1898 or so. They are way ahead of their time in some of the insights and ideas, and yet also so reflective of the time and place--a time and place where it's normal to marry your daughter off by 8 or 9, and she is quite old for marriage by her teenage years, a time when the British still had colonial power in India. I haven't read a lot of older fiction since I was a teen, so it is a treat to read Tagore, but he is so much more thoughtful than most of the older continental European authors I used to read.

Tagore communicates culture, landscape, language to me--someone who has never been to Bengal, or India--very powerfully, and I can only presume accurately and with its complexity. Tagore writes from a man's perspective, for the most part, and lacks certain insight into women, and yet the last story in the collection, narrated by a woman, is incredibly powerful. And his stories that center around some way in which a woman is oppressed by her husband, etc. are very compelling, as are his depictions of power and subservience, money and exploitation, in-law relationships, and the land and the water. I kept wondering, as I read his stories, "Why had I not begun reading Tagore earlier?" That said, he also clearly belongs to the class (rich) and gender that he comes from, and there are, of course, limitations to the kinds of voices he can deeply convey. But he does seem to work with curiosity, insight and compassion to tell a rich variety of stories. You will be transported to Bengal in the late 19th century with little effort on your part. He wraps you in.

I also really liked how short most of the stories are--good for bedtime.

[Fiza Pathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stories in this collection are very innovative for its time & brings to its readers an awareness of the many social issues that plague India. All except one story are told from a male narrator's point of view. The stories are centered around almost larger than life characters. Most of the stories have hidden symbology & are of cultural significance. We as Indians have in a way improved from the time these short stories were penned but, many of the social issues mentioned in the book are still prevalent today. Child marriage, forced widowhood, bigamy, gender inequality, etc., are some of the main social issues highlighted in this collection. Tagore wrote these stories based on the lifestyles of rural & urban Indians of the last decade of the 19th century. All the stories are based in Bengal, especially in rural Bengal & Calcutta. Tagore also through these stories manages to bring to life the female protagonists & create in them an identity which most of them could not achieve because of the tyranny of the patriarchy. All the stories except one end up in a haunting or gloomy climax of sorts. Tagore is better at coloring a scene than Premchand but tends to be too sentimental & poetic when in the middle of a very tense situation. However, Tagore is still someone who can string together scenic beauty & memorable characters that tend to remain with you. His views about women are a bit dated but yet readable. My favorite story was 'Exercise Book' but I also appreciated 'The Postmaster', 'Taraprasanna's Fame', 'The Editor' & 'Little Master's Return'. Tagore is certainly one of the greatest writers in Indian fiction & his thoughts on the Indian Freedom Struggle as well as on religious tolerance live on in his writings including the writings in this collection. I hope to read & re-read more of his writings in the coming days & months.

[Dipti · Rating 5 out of 5]

The subtlety and simplicity with which Sir Tagore writes, compliments the old Indian times of Calcutta and places around it. Stories with lessons and hidden morals reminds me of English textbook stories which was worth looking forward to when a fresh new year began.

The best part about Sir Tagore's stories are that they have a very mellow edge to the stories which reflect the hardships and struggles of a common man. Although written with respect to a society which dated back almost a century back the style in which the emotions are displayed can be related to even today. Not ending a story in a conventional 'happy ending' manner makes it stand out from the rest. It makes us roam around the fictional world of the story for sometime and hitting the harsh reality of the world at the end teaching us that in reality 'happiness' is just another emotion and not the sole emotion to be in perpetually and that human beings need to have the ability to deal with other emotions as strongly and adamantly as much as they treat happiness.

The last story "The Son of Rashmani" moved me the most. I almost welled up a little at the end. I guess the best one was kept for the last. Apart from this it would be difficult to pick out the best ones but few I found really good were 'The Cabuliwallah', 'Subha'(for effectively portraying the hardships and emotions of dumb people ) and 'The Castaway' (The way he has justified the 'theft' filled with emotions is brilliant.)

[Gazala · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though I am not too fond of Indian writers, the authors that wrote in earlier times had such a fine command over the language that a lot of new-gen Indian authors lack . Tagore happens to be one of those who never disappoints.
With realistic portrayals and stories that touch one's hearts and move us in gentle ways , these short stories are no exception and provide to us reading material that targets the heart.

While I've read some of these stories in school , it has been a pleasure to read them again - at a different age , with a different perspective which to me is the most beautiful thing about re-reading books...it shows us how much we have changed as we perceive it differently every single time.

The stories are set in Bengal , and encompass varied raw human emotions. The highlight for me remains the fact that very few writers have some prowess where they deliver such powerful ideas - take one on a journey in such few words and still manage to arouse all the right emotions.

Overall , this one makes to the favorites. More on www.merakipost.com soon.

Happy reading.

[O · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this collection. I was disappointed that it did not have as well "The Broken Nest", but these were fine all the same.

Sigh, Tagore is depressing. In almost every single story, someone either died or ...died....and the sadness came through the opened floodgates.

I think the only thing I've ever read from him that was hopeful or even cheerful would have been Gitanjali which I would listen to on headphones during the Great Panic Attacks of '09.

In this collection, we learn of loving fathers, tyrannical mother in laws, hateful brother in laws and the like.

I find it's interesting how women are portrayed in this collection, they are all insatiable beings who rule their husbands who argue and make unreasonable demands. I feel as though he's trying to be humourous, but it comes off so dry, but I like dry humour so it works for me :D

Definitely a Good Read.

[Mangesh Zope · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing stories which will take you back to your childhood

Touching stories from calcutta , almost felt like I am reading textbooks from school days. It's amazing how small stories like kabuliwalla and the last one could teach you lessons of life. Would love to read more work written by Ravindranath Tagore

[Taungzilla Lao-aruen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Touching with words and Tagore's narrative style. The writer had left a big room for us to think about the destiny of the characters in every chapters. Perhaps it's impossible for us, as the readers, to finish this book without the soliloquy about our real hard life.