191. The Auspicious Vision. Rabindranath Tagore Story Reintroduced By P S Remesh Chandran

191

The Auspicious Vision. Rabindranath Tagore Story Reintroduced  

P. S. Remesh Chandran
 
Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum

Article Title Image 01 By ID 6335159. Graphics: Adobe SP.

Rabindranath Tagore was a great Indian short story writer, renowned educator, politician, patriot and the National Poet. He actively took part in the Indian Independence Movement. His story The Auspicious Vision is a comedy of an error in which fate plays a key part. Auspicious Vision is a part of Bengali wedding ceremony when the veil of the bride is lifted for the groom to see her face. The reckless hero in the story had not bothered to see his bride before the marriage and was shocked to see the face of his bride for the first time. But it was too late anyway. 

Meeting the beautiful village maid during a shooting expedition.

Kanthi Chandra was a young Bengali Brahmin widower who used to go for shooting expeditions in the woods near the river banks with his friends. Once, as he was sitting in his boat cleaning the gun, a beautiful village maid came to the riverside carrying two ducks. Seeing the shooters she quickly disappeared into a thicket of bamboo woods. But one of Kanthi’s friends had already shot and wounded one of those ducks. Attracted by the wild beauty of the girl, Kanthi followed her into the thicket and found her nursing the wounded duck beside a well-to-do house. He learned that the girl was deaf and dumb but did not learn that she belonged to another house. He was of the impression that the girl was of that house. Then somebody called ‘Sudha’ from inside the house and at that very moment the girl happened to rise and go inside the house. Naturally, Kanthi thought her name was Sudha and she was of that house. It was love at first sight and he wanted to gain her as his bride. Instead of talking with the people of the house then and there, however, he decided to return to his boat for the time being. Thus fate dealt him a card. 

Proposing to marry the girl while not bothering to see the bride.

Infatuated with the idea of marrying this girl, one day, Kanthi went to that well-to-do house and made friendship with the head of the house. He was an old Brahmin, by name Nabin Banerji, whose only care in life was sending his daughter away in marriage to a suitable partner. The old man and the young man soon began to meet outdoors and engage in conversations. The old man soon learned that Kanthi also belonged to a reputed Bengali Brahmin family. (Tagore also was). On another day, sitting on his boat and in the middle of a conversation, Kanthi told the old man that he wished to marry his daughter. The old man was much delighted at this prospect of sending his daughter soon away in marriage. When asked to see his would-be wife, Kanthi did not bother to do so. He believed he had already seen her and held the beautiful girl with the ducks whom he had seen entering the house was the old man’s daughter Sudha. He never knew that the beautiful deaf and dumb girl always accompanying, carrying, fondling, or nursing pets was considered as a nuisance in the village. So, fate here dealt him another card. 

If you want to marry a girl, at least see her face before the marriage.

On the day of the marriage, as part of the ceremony, the bridal veil was lifted. Kanthi was shocked: it was not the beautiful village maiden he had met and liked! But he was not to reveal his anxiety and shock, at least then. It was beyond time for that. At that moment, a young hare rushed into the middle of the people in the hall, disrupting the nuptial ceremony. And following it was that village maiden who rushed into the hall in pursuit. The people in the hall scolded her for spoiling the ceremony. It was also casually revealed to the young man that she was not only deaf and dumb but was underdeveloped in mind also. The irony in the situation is that Kanthi found it relieving to have escaped from marrying an underdeveloped and mentally retarded girl. The story also brings the moral that if you want to marry a girl, at least see her face before the marriage. 

Are hapless human beings to be left out permanently in this world?

Do you know why Tagore wrote this story? If even a widower is not willing to marry a deaf and dumb beautiful village maid, then who will? Are they to be deprived of marriage and the happiness in life? Are they to be left out permanently in this world? Are they to be permanently left to live with no families of their own? Was it their fault they were born without faculties of speech and hearing? When nature took away from this girl her speech and hearing, did she not more than compensate for in beauty? No doubt, she must have found herself alienated in her own village, without friends, without companions. And hence she always being seen accompanying, carrying, fondling, and nursing hapless other creatures like hares and ducks: they too cannot tell their grief like her.

Article Title Image 02 By ID 6335159. Graphics: Adobe SP.

Written in: January 1991
First published on: 27 March 2020

Tags:
 

Bengal Brahmin Marriages, Child Disability, Deaf Dumb, Free Student Notes, Handicapped Girls, Indian Writers, Rabindranath Tagore, Short Stories Reintroduced, Surprise End Stories,

About the Author P. S. Remesh Chandran:

03. Author Profile Of P S Remesh Chandran By Sahyadri Archives.

Editor of Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum. Author of several books in English and in Malayalam. And also author of Swan: The Intelligent Picture Book. Born and brought up in the beautiful village of Nanniyode in the Sahya Mountain Valley in Trivandrum, in Kerala. Father British Council trained English teacher and Mother University educated. Matriculation with distinction and Pre Degree Studies in Science with National Merit Scholarship. Discontinued Diploma studies in Electronics and entered politics. Unmarried and single.

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E-Mail: bloombookstvm@gmail.com

Post: P. S. Remesh Chandran, Editor, Sahyadri Books, Trivandrum, Padmalayam, Nanniyode, Pacha Post, Trivandrum- 695562, Kerala State, South India.