INTRODUCTION:
Rabindranath Tagore was born in Calcutta, India. He
attended University College, at London for one year. He was called back to
India by his father in 1880. During the first 51 years of his life, he achieved
some success with his many stories, songs, and plays. In 1913, he received the
Nobel Prize for literature. He was the first non-westerner to receive the
honor. He wrote over one thousand poems and many books and essays on
philosophy, religion, education and social topics. He also composed more than
two thousand songs, both the music and lyrics. Two of them became the national
anthems of India and Bangladesh. He died at the age of 80.
ABOUT
THE SHORT STORY:
Subha
is a short story written by Tagore. The story is an heartbreaking tale of the
isolation deaf and dumb girl named
Subhashini. She is the daughter of Banikantha.
Subha is born into a comfortable family. She is the youngest of three
daughters. She had an elder sisters Sukeshini and Suhashini. Tagore gives the
theme of fear, isolation and loneliness. Subha’s mother feels a sense of shame
due to Subha’s deformities. At the end, she is married to a man who marries
without knowing her deformity
SUBHA'S
LIVING:
Subha lived in Chandipur. There was a small
river beside her home. There were houses on either side of the river. Subha's
mother tries to love her but she can barely force the emotion. Subha's father
loves and accepts her. In due time her
older two sisters are married to proper men and given a proper dowry. The
parents find hard to search a groom for Subha. Because the mother in laws may fear she will give birth to children with
the same impairments she has.
COMMUNICATION
OF SUBHA:
Subha
has learned to cope as best she can within the context of her family by
communicating with gestures understood only within the family. Her only friends are the two family cows
named Sarbbashi and Panguki. She had no words to speak with the cows. She
murmured lovingly in her language. The cows understood better than Men. She
holded Sarbbashi’s neck with her arms. She visited them thrice in a day. She
also had friendship with goat and a kitten. Along with Nature they are her
connection to her emotions.
SUBHA-
PRATAP'S COMPANION:
Subha
had a friend named Pratap. He is an idle fellow. He was the youngest boy of the
Gossains The boy’s parents thought that
he would not make his living. His only interest in life is casting his fishing
net.His only ambition was to catch fish. The man appreciates her silence as
talking might frighten the fish. She
comes to enjoy seeing him cast his net.
SUBHA'S MARRIAGE:
Banikantha
decided to go to Calcutta with his family. Subha sat in the grassy couch beside
her river and said
“ Don’t let
me leave you, mother. Put your arms about me, as I have put mine about you and
hold me fast”
Even her tears do not register as sadness with her
parents. Subha is sad because she is marrying a stranger who she does not love.
Her parents do not take Subha’s feelings into consideration. Subha is not
treated as the individual she is. She has become a problem for her parents.
They consider her as a burden
CONCLUSION:
The end of the story explores the theme of isolation.
Subha is married. and she is to live her life with a man she does not know. She
is to live in a city in whereby she knows no one. It is at no stage in the
story has Subha’s feelings been put to the forefront by her parents. Though
Subha cannot talk her tears speak louder than words yet her parents do not
realise. She feels alone in her husband's home.
