Rabindranath Tagore Two Sisters

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About the Book The eternal conflict in the age old man woman' relationship, which typically arises when any one of the two partners seeks both solace and passion in a single partner and is often unable to savor the joys of both together, is the central theme of Two Sisters (Dui Bon by Rabindranath Tagore, 1933). The central character Shashanka is torn between two women, undecided between his homemaker wife Sharmila and her younger sister, the vivacious and playful Urmimala, who abhors domestication. The two women revolve round their common love interest and are overwhelmed by the intensity of desire, guilt and agony, in an endless cycle of happy conjugality giving way to the blinding intoxication of passion, finally leaving a toxic taste in the mouths of all the protagonists.

The longing for a doting 'mother' to take care of all his needs often remains strong in a man smitten by a woman and desirous of her favors. Contemporary society is not devoid of this trait and this novella is thus universal and timeless in its approach.

About the Author Former Directing the National Book Trust India Director, Bira Fondation, Delhi, Bhattacharjee the Editor of Sahitya Akademi's prestigious journal Literature. taught comparative and English literature Jadavpur University Gauhati University respectively, early years of his career.

Prof Bhattacharjee the Editorial Consultant the Multi-volume Documentation Project Rashtrapati Bhavan 2013 to 2016. accomplished from Bengali English versa, his the writings of Mahasweta Sunil Gangopadhyay, Bandyopadhyay and Sirshendu Mukhopadhyay have been very received. has also translated Kannada short story collection of UR. Anantamurthy and Marathi novel Viswas into Bengali in collaboration with original authors. Recipient best translator's award IBBY Congress held London 2012, Prof. Bhattacharjee has edited collection of stories displacement from Assam (Barbed Wire Fence, Niyogi Books) and co-edited Best of Indian Literature (1957-2007), published by the Sahitya Akademi.

Introduction It the manuscripts of Dui Bon (Two Sisters) preserved in I the Rabindra Bhavan archive at Santiniketan are carefully scrutinized, one will realize that though Rabindranath made quite a few drafts of the novelette, he did not mention the date of composition anywhere. From the circumstantial evidences like a reference in the Rabindrajiboni by Prabhat Kumar Mukhopadhyay or in a letter written by Tagore to Nirmalkumari Mahalanobis, one can only assume that he prepared the first draft of the novelette by 23 October, 1932. It was first serialised in four consecutive issues of the magazine Bichitra, beginning from November, 1932 and was published in book form by March, 1933.

Like John Donnes' poetry, Two Sisters is a book of 'fine onset'. At the very beginning, Tagore comes out with a statement about feminine nature and it seems the entire narrative is the fictionalisation of that idea. The first sentence of the novel says, 'Women are of two types; that is what I have heard from some scholars. One is of mother category, the other is of lover' and the story goes on to establish Sharmila and her sister Urmimala as the embodiments of these two types.

**Contents and Sample Pages**