Summary of The Lost Jewels by Rabindranath Tagore: 2022

Introduction:

In Rabindranath Tagore’s short story The Lost Jewels, Tagore allows the reader to consider the endless possible outcomes to his story and the message or central idea and theme that he imparts. The central idea is considered in the title and reveals the context of the poem. The central idea is a more direct interpretation than the theme which helps the reader understand the broader or universal appeal of the story. Tagore allows himself the ease of using many Hindi words like Ghat in the stories. The usual setting of his stories is a river ghat and a rural village; not to mention the middle people for it is obvious. He has a nerve to glorify his female character and make the males characters suffer in most of his work. A story is a hundred times its worth when the writer touches upon the internal world of the characters rather than just sticking to the externals. Tagore has this wonderful blend of characteristics with which he spins his yarns to mesmerize the reader. The Lost Jewels is no deviation from this trend. Being born in an enslaved British India he was skeptical and apprehensive of the Americanization sweeping the lengths and breadths of the country. The Lost Jewels merely serves as a surrogate though which he shoots his arrows of sarcasm.The inception of the story is typically Indian. The narrator comes and sits near the author (presumably). He was a sort of person who was bubbling with inquisitiveness right from the top to bottom. The sequence of questions and answers is again a typical Indian gossip.

Summary of The Lost Jewels:

Rabindranath Tagore’s story,  “The Lost Jewels,” incorporates a healthy dose of mysticism and mystery.On the proverbial dark, stormy night, a school teacher walking along a river encounters a man on a boat and engages him in conversation.  The mysterious stranger tells the teacher about the history of a nearby Gothic old dilapidated house that shows signs of having once been the domain of wealthy people.  The house, as described by the stranger, once belonged to a couple, Bhusan Saha and his wife, Mani.  A member’s Bengal’s elite, Bhusan and Mani live an isolated existence, surrounded by the trappings of wealth. Mani spends much of her time handling and admiring her jewels. A fire destroys one of Bhusan’s factories, leaving the couple destitute, with Mani jewels representing their sole remaining source of wealth.  Fearful of Bhusan’s desire to sell the jewels for much needed money, Mani chooses to protect them by wearing all of them at once, and promptly disappears.  Increasingly despondent, Bhusan descends into a virtual state of emotional paralysis, unable to function in the absence of his wife and his wealth.  The story reaches its climax when a ghost-like figure visits him one dark and stormy night and seizes the one final piece of jewelry that was still in the house and departs, leaving Bhusan alone and terrified..and However, as the schoolmaster finishes telling the story, there is darkness and silence all around and then he says that the gentleman apparently does not believe his story. When asked back whether he himself believed in the story just concluded, the schoolmaster replies that he does not because Dame Nature does not have the leisure to write stories, and secondly the gentleman in the boat interrupts to inform him that his own name is Phani Bhusan Saha. Without showing any embarrassment, the schoolmaster says that he had guessed that and wants to know the real name of Phani Bhusan’s wife. The answer is ‘Nritya Kali’. The whole game about names at the end of this story hinges on the false name the gentleman had given to the schoolmaster at the beginning of their conversation.

Characters in The Lost Jewels: