My Favourite Stories of Rabindranath Tagore

Rabidranath Tagore started writing at an early age. His first short story Bhikharini (The Beggar Woman) published in Bharati magazine in the year 1877 when he was just sixteen. Though this story did not receive much acclaim, but it was the first short story ever published in Bangla. He did not take up writing short stories in earnest until the year 1891, when he went to East Bengal (Now Bangladesh) to look after the family estates. During this period, he came in close contact with the common people and witnessed their trials and tribulations-an experience which served as an inspiration for his short stories. The ninety short stories he wrote; were published under the title Golpoguchcho (A bunch of stories) in three volumes.

This book contains translations of seventeen Rabindranath's. stories. Children play a major role in the first eight. Though the protagonist in 'Kabuliwala', 'Khokababu comes back' and 'The Postmaster' is an adult, but the stories revolve around a child. In 'Bolai', 'The Unwanted', 'The Guest', 'The Notebook' and 'Holidays', the central figure is a child. The rest of the stories are women-centric. The heroines of Rabindranath were bold, intelligent, and emotionally strong-unstoppable in their quest for freedom.

Ratna Jha is a doctor by profession. She served in the Indian Air Force for twenty years and took premature retirement in 2002. At present she works in a charitable clinic in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. This is her fourth work of translation from Bangla to English. The other three being Abanindranath Tagore's Rajkahini, Jarasandh's Louha kapat and 'Alka and other stories' by Gautam Das.