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 .
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