Tagore Short Stories Summarized
Rabindranath Tagore
Selected short stories
Profit and Loss
This narrative briefly describes the short, sorrowful life of Nirupama. The name signifies ‘peerless one’ and was given to her by her parents, who were gratified with a daughter after having had five sons. Being treasured, her father searched long and hard to find a groom he deemed suitable enough for her. He engaged Nirupama to the son of a “grand” Raybahadur who asked for a dowry of 10,000 rupees. Even though he had no way of paying the large sum he found such a chance hard to refuse and he procured a way to borrow the money. However once this fell through the prospective husband, despite the wishes of his parents, still insisted on marrying.
Once married, the bride’s father, Ramsundar Mitra had to beg to visit his daughter. She was treated spitefully and Ramsundar heard of the contempt and shame that his daughter was suffering and so attempted to sell the house, without the knowledge of his other children. Unluckily these found out and protested, halting his plans. Later she asked to come home for a few days, so he gathered a portion of the owed amount, yet the in-laws denied his request. At last he made up his mind to not return until he was in possession of the full sum. Finally he managed this, foregoing the wishes and needs of the rest of his household, however his daughter discovered this and forbade him to pay another single paisa, otherwise she warned that he would never see her again. Her sacrifice infuriated her new family even more, and she became more like a servant of the household, than a member of the family. She no longer cared, neglected her well-being and became seriously ill. Her in-laws refused to believe her illness was legitimate and only pitied her enough to call the doctor the night she died. Unlike their treatment of her while she was alive, her funeral pyre was said to be magnificent. Soon after, the family found a new wife for their son, the dowry this time was 20,000
Selected short stories
Profit and Loss
This narrative briefly describes the short, sorrowful life of Nirupama. The name signifies ‘peerless one’ and was given to her by her parents, who were gratified with a daughter after having had five sons. Being treasured, her father searched long and hard to find a groom he deemed suitable enough for her. He engaged Nirupama to the son of a “grand” Raybahadur who asked for a dowry of 10,000 rupees. Even though he had no way of paying the large sum he found such a chance hard to refuse and he procured a way to borrow the money. However once this fell through the prospective husband, despite the wishes of his parents, still insisted on marrying.
Once married, the bride’s father, Ramsundar Mitra had to beg to visit his daughter. She was treated spitefully and Ramsundar heard of the contempt and shame that his daughter was suffering and so attempted to sell the house, without the knowledge of his other children. Unluckily these found out and protested, halting his plans. Later she asked to come home for a few days, so he gathered a portion of the owed amount, yet the in-laws denied his request. At last he made up his mind to not return until he was in possession of the full sum. Finally he managed this, foregoing the wishes and needs of the rest of his household, however his daughter discovered this and forbade him to pay another single paisa, otherwise she warned that he would never see her again. Her sacrifice infuriated her new family even more, and she became more like a servant of the household, than a member of the family. She no longer cared, neglected her well-being and became seriously ill. Her in-laws refused to believe her illness was legitimate and only pitied her enough to call the doctor the night she died. Unlike their treatment of her while she was alive, her funeral pyre was said to be magnificent. Soon after, the family found a new wife for their son, the dowry this time was 20,000