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The Postmaster Summary by Rabindranath Tagore

An Englishman who owns an indigo factory in Ulapur opens a post office. Calcutta's postmaster is sent to this village without his family. He leaves the city for a deserted village with only scattered people.

Tagore uses nature to describe his surroundings. Postmaster's office has a green, slimy pond with dense vegetation. The way he describes it shows that the postmaster can't appreciate his nature connection. Three themes drive this story. First, the story revolves around "longing and separation" The postmaster is taken from his family and sent to a rural village. 

In a busy village, he had little to do and no company. He uses poetry to calm his longing. However, he tries to write about nature, which is impossible. Ratan, a village orphan, helps him with chores. He tells her about his mother and sister at night and asks about her family. He'd lament his "haunting memories" Second, 'companionship' and 'dependence' are seen in how the postmaster and Ratan's relationship develops. Ratan's family memories were few. 

Only fragments of her father coming home in the evening and her little brother fishing on the pond's edge remained. Once she met Dada, she spent her days with him. She'd sit outside his shed, a call away, and do small chores. She ate with Dada. In the evenings, she'd listen to him talk about his relatives and imagine they were hers. "A persistent bird repeated all afternoon the burden of its one complaint in Nature's audience chamber," 

Tagore says of Dada's longing. A man who failed at verse compares it to his emotions. Poetry comes from inner emotion. He wants a loving person to hold close. Postmaster hates Ulapur's quiet. He misses the chaos of Calcutta. Eventually, he tells Ratan he'll teach her to read. He draws her closer. Her only relative is him. Dependent, she grows. As the season's rain seemed never-ending, Dada was troubled by his heart's exile. 

Alone, he gets sick. Ratan cares for him, and he recovers just by relying on her. But he decides to leave. He requests a transfer due to the village's poor health. Transfer denied. he tells Ratan he's resigned and leaving the village She asks to join him. His absurd reaction haunts her. The next day, she fills a bucket for him. he bathes and waits for the postmaster Ratan is consoled when he tells the postmaster about her. Even gives her some money. 

She refuses both and says she'll leave. Ratan is a loner. Dada was her only companion and understood her. When he leaves, she's broken. Upon the new postmaster's arrival, he leaves. He hesitates as the boat leaves, but he can't take her with him. Tagore shows how two minds work. Philosophy helps the postmaster cope. 

He tells himself that meeting, attaching, and leaving are normal. All will settle in time. Wind filling the boat's sails symbolises the reason the postmaster leaves the village. Ratan stands outside the office in tears. As Tagore says, she succumbed to the folly of hope. She's lost her only bond and wants it back. Tagore concludes that humans often hope without seeing the reason, and disappointment becomes too hard to handle.

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