Poet, novelist, painter, musician and Nobel Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore was one of modern India's greatest literary figures. This collection brings together some of his best works--poems, short stories and plays in one volume. Be it the wit, magic and lyricism of his poetry or the vividly etched social milieu of his stories, or the sheer power and vibrancy of his plays, Tagore's versatility and unceasing creativity come alive in these writings. The title play 'The Land of Cards' is a satire against the bondage of orthodox rules, while in 'The Post Office', a child suffocated by his confined existence dreams of freedom in the world outside. From a son's cherished desire to protect his mother in the poem 'Hero' to a fruit-seller longing for his daughter faraway in the story 'Kabuliwala', Tagore's works convey his humanism and his deep understanding of human relationships.
Rabindranath Tagore (Author)
Born in 1861, Rabindranath Tagore was a key figure of the Bengal Renaissance. He started writing at an early age and by the turn of the century had become a household name in Bengal as a poet, a songwriter, a playwright, an essayist, a short story writer and a novelist. In 1913 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature and his verse collection Gitanjali came to be known internationally. At about the same time he founded Visva-Bharati, a university located in Santiniketan, near Kolkata. Called the 'Great Sentinel' of modern India by Mahatma Gandhi, Tagore steered clear of active politics but is famous for returning his knighthood as a gesture of protest against the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919. Tagore was a pioneering literary figure, renowned for his ceaseless innovations in poetry, prose, drama, music and painting, which he took up late in life. His works include novels; plays; essays on religious, social and literary topics; some sixty collections of verse; over a hundred short stories; and more than 2500 songs, including the national anthems of India and Bangladesh. Rabindranath Tagore died in 1941. His eminence as India's greatest modern poet remains unchallenged to this day.
Radha Chakravarty (Translator) Radha Chakravarty is a writer, critic and translator. She is Professor of Comparative Literature & Translation Studies at Ambedkar University, Delhi. She has co-edited The Essential Tagore (Harvard and Visva-Bharati), nominated Book of the Year 2011 by Martha Nussbaum for The New Statesman. She is the author of Feminism and Contemporary Women Writers (2008) and Novelist Tagore (Routledge, 2013). She has also translated several of Tagore's works, including Gora, Boyhood Days, Chokher Bali, Farewell Song: Shesher Kabita and The Land of Cards: Stories, Poems and Plays for Children. Other works in translation include Bankimchandra Chatterjee's Kapalkundala, In the Name of the Mother by Mahasweta Devi, and Crossings: Stories from Bangladesh and India. She has edited Bodymaps: Stories by South Asian Women and co-edited Tagore the Eternal Seeker: Footprints of a World Traveller, Writing Feminism: South Asian Voices and Writing Freedom: South Asian Voices. Shades of Difference: Selected Writings of Rabindranath Tagore is an edited volume forthcoming from the Social Science Press. Her essays and review articles have appeared in books and periodicals worldwide.
