The Post Office

Post Office, The

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Title: The Post Office
Author: Rabindranath Tagore
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The Post Office
By Rabindranath Tagore
[Translated from Bengali to English by Devabrata Mukherjee]
[New York: The Macmillan Company, 1914 Copyright 1914, by
Mitchell Kennerley; Copyright, 1914 by The Macmillan Company]

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ
MADHAV AMAL, his adopted child SUDHA, a little flower girl THE
DOCTOR DAIRYMAN WATCHMAN GAFFER VILLAGE
HEADMAN, a bully KING'S HERALD ROYAL PHYSICIAN

THE POST OFFICE
ACT I
[MADHAV'S House]
MADHAV. What a state I am in! Before he came, nothing mattered; I
felt so free. But now that he has come, goodness knows from where,

my heart is filled with his dear self, and my home will be no home to
me when he leaves. Doctor, do you think he--
PHYSICIAN. If there's life in his fate, then he will live long. But what
the medical scriptures say, it seems--
MADHAV. Great heavens, what?
PHYSICIAN. The scriptures have it: "Bile or palsey, cold or gout
spring all alike."
MADHAV. Oh, get along, don't fling your scriptures at me; you only
make me more anxious; tell me what I can do.
PHYSICIAN. [Taking snuff] The patient needs the most scrupulous
care.
MADHAV. That's true; but tell me how.
PHYSICIAN. I have already mentioned, on no account must he be let
out of doors.
MADHAV Poor child, it is very hard to keep him indoors all day long.
PHYSICIAN. What else can you do? The autumn sun and the damp are
both very bad for the little fellow--for the scriptures have it: /* "In
wheezing, swoon or in nervous fret, In jaundice or leaden eyes--" */
MADHAV. Never mind the scriptures, please. Eh, then we must shut
the poor thing up. Is there no other method?
PHYSICIAN. None at all: for, "In the wind and in the sun--"
MADHAV. What will your "in this and in that" do for me now? Why
don't you let them alone and come straight to the point? What's to be
done then? Your system is very, very hard for the poor boy; and he is
so quiet too with all his pain and sickness. It tears my heart to see him
wince, as he takes your medicine.

PHYSICIAN. effect. That's why the sage Chyabana observes: "In
medicine as in good advices, the least palatable ones are the truest." Ah,
well! I must be trotting now. [Exit]
[GAFFER enters]
MADHAV. Well, I'm jiggered, there's Gaffer now.
GAFFER. Why, why, I won't bite you.
MADHAV. No, but you are a devil to send children off their heads.
GAFFER. But you aren't a child, and you've no child in the house; why
worry then?
MADHAV. Oh, but I have brought a child into the house.
GAFFER. Indeed, how so?
MADHAV. You remember how my wife was dying to adopt a child?
GAFFER. Yes, but that's an old story; you didn't like the idea.
MADHAV. You know, brother, how hard all this getting money in has
been. That somebody else's child would sail in and waste all this money
earned with so much trouble--Oh, I hated the idea. But this boy clings
to my heart in such a queer sort of way--
GAFFER. So that's the trouble! and your money goes all for him and
feels jolly lucky it does go at all.
MADHAV. Formerly, earning was a sort of passion with me; I simply
couldn't help working for money. Now, I make money and as I know it
is all for this dear boy, earning becomes a joy