21 Sarvshreshth Kahaniya - Rabindranath Tagore (Hindi)

by Rabindranath Tagore

रवीन्द्रनाथ टैगोर ने अपने जीवन-काल में बांग्ला भाषा को अपनी लेखनी द्वारा एक महत्त्वपूर्ण आयाम पर पहुँचा दिया। उनके लेखन में भारतीय ग्रामीण-जीवन और बांग्ला संस्कृति का अनूठा मिश्रण देखने को मिलता है। उन्होंने बच्चों की भावनाओं को ध्यान में रखते हुए प्रसिद्ध कहानियां लिखीं हैं, उनमें से एक है 'काबुलीवाला'। एक छोटी-सी बच्ची मिनी को, काबुली चना बेचने वाला अपनी बच्ची की तरह प्यार करता है। लेकिन जब मिनी की शादी में मिनी के पिता, 'काबुलीवाला' को उससे नहीं मिलने देते हैं, तब 'काबुलीवाला' के भीतर एक पिता का हृदय रो पड़ता है। रवीन्द्रनाथ टैगोर द्वारा रचित कहानियों में से कुछ कहानियों का संकलन इस किताब में किया गया है। जिसमें पाषाणी, अवगुंठन, भिखारिन, अपरिचिता, समाज का शिकार, अनाथ एवं अन्य कहानियां सर्वश्रेष्ठ हैं।

226 pages, Paperback

Published March 29, 2015

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

[Rohit Sharma · Rating 5 out of 5]

The third book back-to-back in Hindi amongst the last five that I have read in March / April so far. What surprised me big time is that they are all from the Authors of the same era, Jai Shankar Prasad, Sarat Chandra and Rabindranath Tagore, but the language is the same or even identical, with so many common words used by all three of them. Or this might be the case of a common translator, unfortunately, none of the books mentions the translator’s name,e as I am sure Sarat Chandra and Tagore must have written their Stories in Bangla originally. Still, they all turn out to be heart-touching stories depicting late 19th to early 20th century life with the then women as the central core. Here also, marriage is a big subject for girls as young as 12 or a little more; someone turning 19 and unmarried will be treated as a bad mark. That made me think what has changed in the last 150-odd years after these stories were written. Last month we attended one of my cousins' marriages back home, and my daughter,r who turned 20 this year, was the apple of everyone's eye in that marriage, and I did hear so much hush-hush talking of her coming of age and that we might start looking for a good match for her :). Practically nothing has changed in our part of the world, for sure. Among the 21 stories covered in this book, my favourite will always be the “Kabuliwallah”. Little Mini is playing around with the man from Kabul who comes to her city to sell his dry fruits. His own back story as to why he never charges her father for anything that she takes or eats from his bag is totally super emotional. On top of that, when he gets arrested on the charges of murder, making sure he will never go back to his country, and his own little daughter will know nothing of him. How he keeps her memory with himself actually made not only my eyes go wet, but this time, actual tears rolled down my face. Imagine the impact of these emotional words on my fragile heart. This must be the nth time that I must have read this story and have seen a few adaptations too, but never had this impact earlier.

The second story that touched me deep inside was “Aparichita”. Where a girl’s father breaks the shackles by agreeing to dowry, but when the moment comes and they get publicly embarrassed by the groom’s family (one particular maternal uncle), he still entertains them and serves them food, etc., but refuses to marry his daughter to the man. What happens next is predictable, but the way it ends is totally unbelievable. One has to read the story to know the outcome, as it actually shocked me by the ending and kept me quite in suspense. There are so many other short stories with open endings too, which kept me thinking for a long time, and some with such shocking and abrupt endings where the author plainly refuses to go any further. Just like the way Jai Shankar Prasad and Sarat Chandra did earlier with me in their stories. This is almost my first ever book from Tagore in a long, long time, but now I will have to look out for some or all of his works that I should read at the earliest. Do let me know if you have read anything from Tagore in recent times, and also, if you have a personal favourite that you would like to recommend.

[readwithricha2 · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, I read this book yesterday. As I also mentioned in my recent video, this book highlights the conservative thought process of people from that time. Issues like racism, patriarchy, dowry, and intercaste marriage being taboo—along with other social elements we still fight against today—were written about so casually by the author, as if there was nothing wrong with them.

There were moments where I expected someone to take a stand against these issues, but no—the scene just moved on. It was brought up later, but only as a conversation, not as something to fight against.

Someone was actually killed for marrying outside their caste. Widowed women were either treated horribly, or Sati Pratha was still practiced. God, how gruesome it must have been—to be burned alive.

There were intelligent women in that era who could have been poets or writers, but instead of being celebrated, they were seen as a problem.

The author used kala, kali for humans with such ease that it felt like even educated people of that time didn’t realize what they were doing. And I’m not saying they were wrong—because even in today’s world, this still happens. It’s shameful.

There was a chapter called Khoya Hua Moti, where it seemed like the person who was actually good was portrayed as bad, stupid, and worthless. In the end, it felt like the author was trying to say that being like that wasn’t a crime, but it was just the mindset of that period. Back then, you weren’t considered an “ideal man” if you listened to your wife, made her happy, or gave her what she wanted without her asking. It was the worst chapter.

Another chapter featured a conversation between Vishnu ji and a lotus-turned-woman, which beautifully described how deep, secure, dangerous, cold, warm, and unpredictable a poet’s heart can be. It can be dark or enlightened, depending on the poet’s mood. That part was amazing.

There was also a chapter about a man who was a mama’s boy, proving that this concept has existed for a long time. Similarly, the idea of a daddy’s girl was also present. In the same chapter, a daughter’s father asked the baraat and the groom to leave because they did not respect his daughter or him as much as she deserved. That was the best part. I felt like they were the only ones who stood against the norm that baraat chali gayi to naak kat jayegi. He knew he was not wrong, and he told them to leave.

An amazing book. But since it was a collection of stories, there were a few that I couldn’t fully understand. Maybe I need more perspective to grasp them. That’s why I rated it 3.5 stars. I might read it again, come back, and change my rating, but for now, it stays at 3.5.

[Ritika Gaur · Rating 5 out of 5]

सभी उच्च कोटि की लघुकथाएं हैं, गुरूदेव श्री रबीन्द्रनाथ टैगोर की लेखनी अद्भुत है।

[Pranav Kumar · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

[Niraj Khandwala · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice. stories