The short story as quintessence: The Art of Rabindranath Tagore

When the Kabuliwala is finally released from prison, he comes to pay Mini a visit. It is the day of her wedding, and officially a day of parting in any Indian/Bengali household. He calls for her. She comes down having forgotten her old childhood mate. When he asks her about her marriage, she leaves the room in embarrassment. The Kabuliwala realizes that time has passed and that his own daughter in the remote mountains of Afghanistan, would probably not remember him too. This is how specificity merges with universality in Tagore, with the story exploring the relationships of fathers and daughters and the shadow that falls within.

Structurally, the story is straightforward without taking recourse to “ambiguity” and “ellipsis” as narrative modes. Compared to a short story by James Joyce or Katherine Mansfield, the story puts forward its universal aesthetics in unambiguous ways. Formally, Rabindranath’s pieces are in the tradition of Maupassant rather than Chekov, because not only do most stories have formal completion they also have a more or less definite closure.