This book contains translations of six selected short stories of Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore from his book 'Galpaguchha'. The stories are, 'Alive and Dead' (Jeebita o Mreeta), 'Suva', 'The First Look' (Shuvadrishti), 'Hoimantee', 'Letter from Your Wife' (Streer Patra) and 'The Anonymous Lady' (Aparichita).
I have selected these stories, because first of all I enjoyed reading these stories and secondly all these six stories are concerned about the position of women in the family and in the society at that time, that is, during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century.
In all six stories, the story is centred around a young girl or a matured housewife. These stories depict the vulnerability of women, their lack of control over their marriage and life as a whole. Only in two stories do we find that the protagonists took decisions regarding their lives. In 'The Anonymous Lady', we find that the young lady took a decision regarding her life herself, of course at a later stage. The first decision was her father's. In another story 'Letter from Your Wife', also the lady took a decision regarding her life at the end.
These stories show a glimpse of life of another time and of another culture. The line of thinking may seem much different from today's life, but in reality in many parts of the world still there are some people who like to suppress the rights of women in the name of religion or culture. So, these stories are still relevant and they are a good way to understand the society of that time.
Short stories are a big part of Rabindranath Tagore's writings. He created this new genre in Bengali literature through writing around hundred short stories. A short description of his vast works is also included in the book.