Tagore’s The Post Office through the Kaleidoscope of Bharat’s Rasa Theory

Abstract

When you are open to a deeper Truth, you are open to Love. When you are open to Love, you attract
Miracles. - Nathaniel Solace
Rabindranath Tagore was one such miracle child, who wrote to inspire the world with his personal
experiences. He was the first Asian to win the Noble Prize in Literature in 1913 for his extraordinary
collection of poems, namely Gitanjali. His fond and loving sobriquet was Gurudev, the one that shed light in
the path of darkness. Tagore mostly wrote in Bengali, his mother-tongue, but his works are translated too.
The Post Office originally Dak Gharis the story of a young sickly boy and his imagination of the world
beyond the four walls of his room. He is a cheerful child, full of life, yet fighting to live his life fully. Tagore
narrates the story but keeps the end open for the readers to imagine, which a particular trait of his is. The
story is a journey of the eagerness of a child to communicate and participate in the activity of life. Bharat’s
Rasa Theory is similarly a theory of relishing what life offers to the humans, every moment, each activity
and everyone connected to us in life. How they make us feel, what makes us laugh and what makes us cry,
what surprises us and what scares us, is all a part of Bharat’s Rasa Theory. The view of The Post Office
would be pleasurable through the glasses of Rasa Theory, as the story of The Post Office is the story of a
child, who wishes to paint the world in his own colors.