The Post Office

by Rabindranath Tagore

Overview

The Post office is a story of an eight-year-old boy who is terminally ill and is confined inside his house by the family physician. He sees the outside world only through his window. He talks to the passers-by and engages them in eager conversations. Flower seller's daughter Sudha has made a promise of bringing flowers for him. Watchman tells him that the big building with the flag is the king's new Post office. He imagines that he will receive aetter from the King and based on that he constructs an imaginary world for himself. He dreams of being the royal postman and awaits the king's visit.The Post office offers a glimpse into Tagore's vast understanding of the human spirit that gathers hope even in the hopelessness. It depicts the free spirit and the joy of the open road free from bondage. Also, Tagore's symbolism pervades throughout the play and explains the current state of India; it helps to produce strong imagery of the past, present and future of the country. It was published by Rupa in 2002 and is available in paperback. Key Features: The Post office was written in 1912. The original name of the play was "Dakghar" and it was written in Bengali. An interesting fact is that it was written in just four days. W.B. Yeats was the first to translate it into English; he also wrote a preface to it. It has also been translated in French, German, Spanish and Polish.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789354620621
Publisher:	True Sign Publishing House
Publication date:	03/01/2021
Pages:	42
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.10(d)

About the Author

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was an Indian poet, composer, philosopher, and painter from Bengal. Born to a prominent Brahmo Samaj family, Tagore was raised mostly by servants following his mother’s untimely death. His father, a leading philosopher and reformer, hosted countless artists and intellectuals at the family mansion in Calcutta, introducing his children to poets, philosophers, and musicians from a young age. Tagore avoided conventional education, instead reading voraciously and studying astronomy, science, Sanskrit, and classical Indian poetry. As a teenager, he began publishing poems and short stories in Bengali and Maithili. Following his father’s wish for him to become a barrister, Tagore read law for a brief period at UniversityCollege London, where he soon turned to studying the works of Shakespeare and Thomas Browne. In 1883, Tagore returned to India to marry and manage his ancestral estates. During this time, Tagore published his Manasi (1890) poems and met the folk poet Gagan Harkara, with whom he would work to compose popular songs. In 1901, having written countless poems, plays, and short stories, Tagore founded an ashram, but his work as a spiritual leader was tragically disrupted by the deaths of his wife and two of their children, followed by his father’s death in 1905. In 1913, Tagore was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, making him the first lyricist and non-European to be awarded the distinction. Over the next several decades, Tagore wrote his influential novel The Home and the World (1916), toured dozens of countries, and advocated on behalf of Dalits and other oppressed peoples.