Atithi (The Guest)

Tarapada

Tarapada, the fifteen year old Brahmin boy at the centre of the story, is Tagore's portrait of the eternal wanderer and child of nature. Physically he is almost divinely beautiful, fair and graceful, as if lovingly carved by a sculptor, and this outer perfection mirrors an inner purity.

Though he has drifted through yatra troupes, panchali singers and gymnasts' camps, hearing foul language and seeing dreadful sights, nothing soils him. Tagore compares him to a swan swimming through the world's murky waters with pure white wings. He is a born artist, a singer, flautist and reciter of panchali, and music is the first force that lured him from home.

His defining trait is detachment, a freedom from all ties. He runs away from home at seven or eight not because he is unloved, for he is in fact everyone's darling, but because affection itself is a chain to him: he would not accept ties, even ties of love. Each time a group begins to treat him as a son, he disappears. He is wary of bonds as a young fawn, yet paradoxically he is a universal charmer, warm, helpful and adaptable, winning every heart in Kathaliya within days.

In the last movement of the story Tarapada stands at a crossroads. Two years of settled comfort, study and Charu's strange fascination have begun to stir a powerful feeling of attraction in him. But when the monsoon river brings the music and movement of the great world to the village ghat, his old self awakens. On the night before his secretly planned wedding he flees, thief of all hearts, returning to the unconstraining, unemotional arms of his mother Earth. He remains what the title declares him, a guest, never a possession, of any family or place.

Charushashi (Charu)

Charu, Matilal Babu's nine year old, later eleven year old, daughter, is an only child and sole claimant on her parents' affection. She is spoiled, wilful, obstinate and volatile, given to tantrums over food, clothes and hair, yet capable of sudden, excessive bursts of affection. Tagore calls her a puzzle, and her behaviour towards Tarapada is the story's emotional storm centre, a classic love and hate relationship in which jealousy is the first disguise of attraction.

Her jealousy and possessiveness drive the plot's most memorable scenes. Furious that her parents and the whole village adore the newcomer, she refuses to admit he has any virtues, and the more his talents shine the angrier she grows. When she discovers that her friend Sonamani already calls him Dada, she burns with rage at the loss of sole rights over their Tarapada and stamps his beloved flute to pieces.

She sabotages his English lessons with ink, theft and torn pages, drives Sonamani from his door hissing like a snake, and even padlocks him into his room, only to dissolve into sobs, scrawled apologies and pleas for forgiveness. Beneath the fury, however, lies a dawning adolescent love which Charu can express only through aggression and tears. A born actress, she pretends indifference while secretly watching Tarapada swim, insists on learning English purely to stay near him, and shuts herself in her room rather than be viewed by another bridegroom's family.

It is Charu's unspoken attachment, noticed by her perceptive mother, that sets the marriage plan in motion, and it is precisely this net of love closing around Tarapada that finally frightens the free bird away.

Annapurna

Matilal Babu's wife embodies maternal tenderness and hospitality, and fittingly her name is that of the goddess of food and plenty. From the first sight of Tarapada she aches with a mother's wonder, asking how his mother could bear to abandon him, and she longs to feed, clothe and cherish him.

His indifference to her hospitality, refusing milk and eating little, genuinely disturbs her. She is also the perceptive emotional centre of the family. She tactfully hides her affection for the boy when she notices Charu's jealousy, and it is she who first reads her daughter's heart and proposes Tarapada as the bridegroom. Her love, however generous, is also one more silken tie in the net that the story's guest must finally escape.

Matilal Babu

The zamindar of Kathaliya is a kindly, worldly wise landowner whose caution coexists with real warmth. He takes the unknown boy aboard without doubt or question, tenderly calling him baba, and soon dreams that Tarapada might make up for his having no son.

He is an indulgent father, helpless before Charu's tantrums, and a pragmatic patriarch. He initially rejects the match because nothing is known of the boy's family, investigates before consenting, and cautiously keeps the wedding secret from Tarapada himself, a secrecy that becomes deeply ironic. He represents respectable, settled, propertied domesticity, the very world of bonds that Tarapada cannot inhabit.

Sonamani

Bamunthakrun's daughter, widowed at the age of five, Sonamani is Charu's playmate and her perfect foil. Where Charu is fiery, possessive and theatrical, Sonamani is gentle, timid and selfless. She stands with her heart in her mouth outside the lesson room, bears Charu's venom quietly, and expresses her affection through small offerings, such as a request for a bamboo flute and, on the final morning, mango preserve and pickle carried shyly to Tarapada's empty room.

Her quiet devotion adds pathos to the ending and reminds the reader how many hearts the departing guest leaves behind. As a child widow she is also a glancing reference by Tagore to the social realities of nineteenth century Bengal.

Freedom versus the bonds of love

The story's central tension is between the human impulse to bind those we love and the soul that cannot be bound. Tarapada would not accept ties, even ties of love. Every group that loves him too well loses him. The climax makes the theme explicit: he escapes before love and emotional ties could encircle him completely.

Wanderlust

Strange boats, wandering sannyasis and gypsy mat weavers make Tarapada's heart stir with longing to be free. On the monsoon night before the wedding, boats of musicians stream to the Kurulkata chariot festival while Kathaliya shuts her doors and goes to sleep, dramatizing the choice between the moving world and the sleeping, settled one.

Nature as mother and kindred spirit

Tarapada is repeatedly identified with nature. He is like Nature herself, always serene and detached yet always busy, compared to a fawn, a swan and a joyous wave on life's unending stream. The monsoon river that returns like Parvati returning to her parents' home is virtually a character, and in the end the boy returns not to a human mother but to his mother Earth.

Possessive love in various forms

Each character tries to claim the guest: Annapurna's maternal longing, Matilal's wish for a surrogate son, the village's adoration, and above all Charu's furious insistence on sole rights over their Tarapada. Tagore shows that even the tenderest love can become a cage.

Music and art, the language of the free spirit

Songs of the yatra first lured him away from home, and his panchali about Kush and Lab spread laughter, pathos and music along the river. His flute wins hearts across the village. Charu's smashing of the flute is symbolically an attempt to break his free, artistic self, an attempt that fails, for he only laughs.

Purity and detachment

Despite the foul language and dreadful sights of itinerant life, nothing fixes itself on Tarapada's mind. He swims in the murky waters of the world with pure white wings, like a swan. Tagore offers a near spiritual ideal of non attachment, reminiscent of the sannyasi ideal, embodied in a boy.

Irony and the significance of the title

The household secretly plans to convert the guest into a son in law. Bands are hired, boats of goods arrive, his family gathers, and on that very morning the room is empty. The title Atithi, meaning Guest, is thus the story's verdict: Tarapada is a guest of the family, of the village and of life itself, one who must, by nature, depart.

Tarapada is a child of nature whom no ties of love can bind. Discuss this statement with close reference to the story, especially its ending. (10 marks)

Tarapada is the hero of the story Atithi by Rabindranath Tagore, and from the very beginning the author presents him as a boy who belongs to nature more than to human society. He ran away from home when he was only seven or eight years old, and the strange thing is that he had no reason to run away. He was not poor, beaten or neglected; in fact he was the darling of all.

He left only because of his wandering nature, since his stars had made him a wanderer. Tagore keeps comparing him to things from nature. He is afraid of ties as a young fawn, he swims through the dirty waters of the world like a swan with pure white wings, and he is like a joyous wave on the stream of life which only knows how to move forward.

In the middle of the story, every character tries to bind Tarapada with some tie of love. Annapurna loves him like a mother and longs to feed him, Matilal Babu sees in him the son he never had, the whole village of Kathaliya adores him, Sonamani is quietly devoted to him, and Charu is fiercely jealous and possessive about him. Because of his English studies, the comfort of the house, and also because Charu's beauty has started creating a strange stirring in his heart, he stays for almost two years, the longest he has ever stayed anywhere.

Matilal Babu even fixes his marriage with Charu secretly, orders a band and three boatloads of wedding goods from Calcutta, and calls his mother and brothers, all without asking Tarapada himself. The reader almost starts believing that the wanderer will finally settle down.

However, the ending proves the statement completely true. On a stormy monsoon night, the swollen river carries boats full of orchestras, merry go rounds and yatra parties going to the chariot festival at Kurulkata. To Tarapada the whole world seemed like a chariot festival, but the village of Kathaliya shuts its doors and goes to sleep. He has to choose between the sleeping house of love and the moving world outside, and he chooses freedom.

The next morning his mother and brothers arrive and the wedding goods reach the ghat, but his room is empty. Tagore writes that the boy left before love and emotional ties could encircle him completely and went back to the unconstraining, unemotional arms of his mother Earth. Thus no human love, a mother's, a father's or Charu's, could bind him. He belongs only to Mother Nature, the one mother who lets him remain free and asks for nothing in return.

Draw a character sketch of Charushashi, bringing out the love and hate relationship she shares with Tarapada. (10 marks)

Charushashi, or Charu, is the nine year old daughter of Matilal Babu and Annapurna. Since she is their only child, she is the sole claimant of all their love, and so she has grown up spoilt, stubborn and wilful. She throws tantrums over her food, clothes and hairstyles, and her mother is terrified whenever she has to be taken out anywhere. Yet when she is in a good mood, she hugs and kisses her mother and laughs in an unbalanced way.

Tagore himself calls her a puzzle. She is also a born actress. She pretends to knit a scarf with full indifference while secretly watching Tarapada's swimming in the river. Through her, Tagore gives us a wonderful study of a child's heart.

Charu's relationship with Tarapada is a perfect example of love and hate, because her hatred is only jealousy in disguise. When Tarapada comes, everyone, her parents, the servants and the villagers, starts praising him, and Charu cannot bear losing the centre of attention. The more talented he proves himself, the angrier she becomes, and she refuses to admit he has even one good quality.

Her jealousy turns into possessiveness when she discovers that her friend Sonamani already knows him and calls him Dada. She feels that he is their Tarapada and nobody else has any right over him, and darts of fire stab her heart. In her rage she marches into his room and smashes his beloved flute by stamping on it. During their English lessons together she pours ink on his exercise book, steals his pen and tears out his pages, and once she even locks him in his room with a padlock when he visits Sonamani's house.

But after every outburst, Charu's hidden love comes out clearly. When Tarapada sits in angry silence, she becomes desperate for forgiveness and writes in large round letters that she will never pour ink on his exercise book again. After locking him in, she folds her hands, sobs and begs him to eat before going. When the bridegroom's party from Raydanga comes to see her, she locks herself in her room and refuses to come out, because in her heart she wants only Tarapada.

Only her mother understands the truth and tells Matilal Babu that her daughter likes him. The sad irony is that this very love becomes a chain for the free spirited boy. Tarapada runs away on the night before the wedding, and Charu's stormy first love remains unspoken and unanswered forever.

Justify the title of the story Atithi (Guest). How do the river, the monsoon and music reinforce its meaning? (10 marks)

The title Atithi means Guest, and it suits the story perfectly because Tarapada remains only a guest wherever he goes. He never becomes a permanent member of any family, and his whole life is a chain of guest stays. He left his own loving family, then a yatra troupe, then the panchali singers and then the gymnasts, and each time he ran away the moment people began to love him like their own.

In the same way he steps onto Matilal Babu's boat asking only to be dropped at Nandigram, but ends up staying with the family for two years. The family forgets that he is only a guest. Annapurna mothers him, Matilal Babu plans to make him his son in law, and a wedding is fixed secretly, as if a guest's permission to stay forever can simply be assumed. When Tarapada disappears on the very eve of his wedding, the title's meaning is proved with full force: a guest comes only to leave.

The river and the monsoon make the meaning of the title even stronger. The story begins on the river, where Tarapada boards the boat, and Tagore compares him to a joyous wave on life's unending stream, always flowing forward like the river itself. When the monsoon arrives, the dried up village river fills with water like Parvati returning to her parents' home, and boats from far off places crowd the village ghat, so that the big outside world also comes like a guest to visit the small village.

On the climactic night, the flooded river carries festival boats towards the chariot festival at Kurulkata, and the same river becomes the road by which the guest escapes back to the open world, to the arms of his mother Earth.

Music is the third symbol that supports the title. It was the songs of the yatra that first lured Tarapada away from his home. With his flute and his panchali of Kush and Lab he wins every heart, first on the boat and then in the whole village, spreading laughter, pathos and music through the evening air. But the important point is that music binds only the listeners, never the singer. Charu smashes his flute because she wants to own him completely, but she fails, for he only laughs at her. In the end it is music once again, the drums, cymbals and orchestras of the festival boats, that calls him away forever.

Thus the title, the river and the music all point to one idea: Tarapada is the eternal guest of life itself, who brings joy to every house he visits but belongs to none.