The Postmaster – A Short Story by Rabindranath Tagore

Contextual Question from the Text Book (Courtesy – Frank Brothers &
Co.) 

“One day it rained torrentially from dawn. The postmaster’s pupil
waited for a long time at the door, but when the usual call failed to
come she quietly entered the room, with her bundles of books. She saw
the postmaster lying on his bed: thinking that he was resting, she
began to, she began to tiptoe out again.” 

Q.What was Ratan’s immediate reaction on hearing the postmaster’s
decision? Why do you think she reacted in this way? 

         Ratan did not utter even a single word when the postmaster informed
her that he was leaving Ulapur for good as his application for a
transfer had been rejected. 

        Being utterly shocked by her master’s such an apathetic treatment of
her, the poor girl was rendered speechless. 

Q. ***Why do you think Ratan told the postmaster she didn’t want him
to speak to his replacement about her and why did she refuse to accept
his money? 

        She did so because in spite of her considering her dadababu as her
very own, she finally realized that the man was but a kind master who
had never thought of her as her sister. This is the reason why her
little and inexperienced heart exploded in a kind of an untold agony
when the postmaster offered to recommend her to his replacement along
with some money. The overwhelming passion of Ratan’s heart has been
described in a most touching fashion by the story-telling genius of
Tagore. 

        “No, no, you mustn't say anything to anyone – I don’t want to stay
here.” 

…………..”I beg you, dadababu, I beg you – don’t give me any money.
Please no one need bother about me.” 

Legend- *** VVI 

“But Ratan had no such philosophy to console her. All she could do was
wander near the post office, weeping copiously. May be a faint hope
lingered in her mind that dadababu might return: and this was enough
to tie her to the spot, prevent her from going far. Oh poor,
unthinking human heart! Error will not go away, logic and reason are
slow to penetrate. We cling (hug) with both arms to false hope,
refusing to believe the weightiest proofs against it, embracing it
with all our strength. In the end it escapes, ripping our veins and
draining our heart’s blood; until, regaining consciousness, we rush to
fall into snares (traps) of delusion (illusion) all over again”.
i) What was the philosophy that consoled the postmaster? Why didn’t
Ratan have a philosophy to console her?
        It was not that the postmaster did not feel occasional pangs of
sorrow when he was leaving the village without taking Ratan with him.
He reconciled himself with the situation by musing (reflecting) that
life had to go on regardless of the helplessness of the misery of the
orphan girl for whom he was neither responsible nor accountable to the
society or the world. He told himself that human bondage was after all
a frail thing which was often broken by the hard realities of life.
        But Ratan who was naive (immature) and impressionable (easily
influenced), did not share her master’s philosophy. Being young, she
was not yet hardened by the harshness of life and she was still
hopeful that her dadababu might somehow return to give her shelter in
the temple of his affectionate and kind heart.
ii) What was Ratan’s hope? How would it help her?
        Ratan hoped that her dadababu had ceased to be an employer and had
become her own elder brother. This perception of the relationship
between Ratan and the postmaster was but one sided and a delusion
(fantasy). This the innocent girl could neither comprehend nor
realise. She believed herself  to be a member of the postmaster’s
family and thought that her days of woe were over. She imagined
herself to be in the citadel (sanctuary) of his dadababu’s kind and
loving heart.
        Ratan’s simplicity and blind faith did not help her in the least.
This did nothing but cruelly tearing her heart into pieces. She
finally sank in a sea of misery and unbearable agony. What actually
happened to her was akin (similar) to a bleakness (isolation) which
was darker than the darkest of nights.
iii) Why does the author exclaim ‘unthinking human heart’? Why do we
cling (stick) to false hopes?
        Human hearts have a universality and the universality is that it is
powerlessly fond of hope even when it is a false one. Human beings
usually abhor (dislike) to take the path of logic. Clinging to unreal
and improbable aspirations, they never fail to allow themselves to be
struck by tragedy after tragedy.
        We all grip false hopes because it is simply human nature. What human
heart is mostly fond of is love but life being a very exacting
(demanding) affair indeed, it rarely offers an acceptable solution to
our miseries or woes. Yet, human nature is uncomprehending of this and
so goes on clinging to false hopes.

iv) What do we keep doing repeatedly?
        “We cling with both arms to false hope, refusing to believe the
weightiest proof against it, embracing it with all our strength.”
        Finally a time comes when false hopes escape, leaving us almost half-
dead by draining our heart’s blood. Time passes. Our wounds heal. But
again “we rush to fall into snares of delusion all over again.”
v) Do you blame the postmaster for his decision to leave without
Ratan? What was Ratan’s reaction to the situation? How do you justify
what both of them did?
        From a moral point of view the postmaster perhaps committed a
grievous wrong so far Ratan was concerned. It was not absolutely
improbable or impossible for him to treat her as her own sister. May
be if the postmaster had been poor and uneducated, he would have taken
the orphan girl into his fold like even the poorest of people would do
in such a circumstance. However, the postmaster reacted as any city
bred and educated man would have done and so he is not to be blamed.
        Ratan reacted to the situation in a miserable manner, mistaking
despair to be hope and the inevitable (unavoidable) to be false. In
the process, her heart bled profusely, making her sorrow and agony to
be inconsolable.
        The greatest justification of what both of them did is that such
brief preludes of intense hopefulness and acute agony (in case of
Ratan) are but very familiar milestones in life’s journey. On the
other hand, the postmaster’s mild betrayal of Ratan (mild because what
the postmaster did was commonplace) i.e. the act of forsaking a
helpless orphaned girl is not much to talk about.





Q. What do you think is the chief elements of the story – The
Postmaster?
        This is a touching story of a city-bred young man working as a
postmaster in a remote village to earn his bread and butter. He lives
here more out of compulsion rather than a choice. Rabindranath’s
finely crafted poetic narrative brings out the haunting home-sickness
of the educated young man at a place where he finds no suitable
companion as well as the mellow natural greenery and serenity that
encompasses him here. On the other hand, the despair and agony of
Ratan, the young orphan girl who foolishly identified her kind master
as her elder brother as he took a personal interest in her, has also
been worded very artistically in this moving story. This the
postmaster did partly to pass his long leisure which hung heavy in his
hand and partly not to be distracted by the memories of his near and
dear ones who were in Calcutta. When the moment of parting finally
came, and when the postmaster, having felt a bit of compassion for the
servant-girl, offered her recommendations and money, Ratan was
rendered heart-broken. Having believed that she was going to find
genuine love and a home sooner or later, the offer of money burned the
very core of her being. Bursting into tears, she ran away refusing all
the help.
        The postmaster despite his not so little feelings for Ratan realised
with a heavy heart that no lasting relationship was possible with her.
Finally, as his boat begins sailing swiftly and the village of Ulapur
recedes further in the distance, he tries to find comfort in the
thought that “there are so many separations and deaths” in the world.