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This three-volume English translation by Ratan Kumar Chattopadhyay called Selections from Galpaguchchha is a collection of sixty-one of Tagore`s short stories broadly grouped under the themes of parting of ways, the relationship between men and women, and the power within the woman, respectively.
Volume 1 includes memorable stories like the ˜The Pedlar from Kabul`, ˜Broken Nest`, ˜Punishment` and ˜The Postmaster`. In the first, an Afghan hawker, Rahmat, comes to Calcutta and befriends five-year-old Mini, who reminds him of his own daughter back home. While ˜Broken Nest` is a story of a lonely urban housewife`s friendship with her brother-in-law and her overwhelming sense of loss when the relationship ends abruptly, ˜Punishment`
set in rural Bengal is a poignant story of young Chandora and her grim resolve when her husband, to save his brother, persuades her to own up to a murder she did not commit.
In Volume 2, we find the ever- popular ˜Ramkanai`s Folly`, ˜The Ghat`s Story`, ˜Woman Bereft of Jewels`, ˜Grandfather`, and ˜The Matronly Boy`, among other stories. The travails of a timid man of indomitable honesty who attains a tragic heroism are narrated in ˜Ramkanai`s Folly`, while the theme of ˜The Ghat`s Story` is the unstated, forbidden love of a young woman for a hermit who may or may not be her long-lost husband. The frisson in the haunting climax of the ˜Woman Bereft of Jewels`, a horrifying morality tale of egotism and greed, is justly famous.
Volume 3, the last in this series, is studded with gems such as ˜Hungry Stones`, ˜The Wife`s Letter`, ˜The Story of a Muslim Woman`, ˜Hidden Treasure` and `At Dead of Night`. The theme of ˜Hungry Stones` is a tale hovering between dream and reality involving palace intrigue and unrequited love, and in ˜The Wife`s Letter`, Mrinal breaks free from the stifling marital ties of fifteen years in what is an indictment of existing gender relations. A traditional Hindu girl out of gratitude for her elderly Muslim protector embraces his religion and falls in love with his son in ˜The Story of a Muslim Woman`.
ISBN :9788125040477
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Pages : 988
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