This three-volume English translation by Ratan Kumar Chattopadhyay called Selections from Galpaguchchha (Bengali for a bunch of stories)is a collection of sixty-one of Tagore’s short stories broadly grouped under the themes of parting of ways, the relationship between men and women, and the power within the woman, respectively.

Volume 1 includes memorable stories like the ‘The Pedlar from Kabul’, ‘Broken Nest’, ‘Punishment’ and ‘The Postmaster’. In the first, an Afghan hawker, Rahmat, comes to Calcutta and befriends five-year-old Mini, who reminds him of his own daughter back home. While ‘Broken Nest’ is a story of a lonely urban housewife’s friendship with her brother-in-law and her overwhelming sense of loss when the relationship ends abruptly, ‘Punishment’ set in rural Bengal is a poignant story of young Chandora and her grim resolve when her husband, to save his brother, persuades her to own up to a murder she did not commit.