Wrong Man in Workers Paradise

Rabindranath Tagore
(Translated from original Bengali by Bhabani Bhattacharya)

About the Author:

Name: Rabindranath Tagore

Born: 7 May 1861, Calcutta, British India

Died: 7 August 1941 (aged 80), Calcutta, British India

His Life:

The youngest son of Debendranath Tagore, a leader of the Brahmo Samaj

Educated at home, in early childhood
Upanishad Ideals
Age 17, sent to England, formal schooling
Started an experimental school at Shantiniketan
Upanishadic ideals of education
Participated in the Indian nationalist movement
non-sentimental and visionary way
Knight Title by British Government in 1915
Resigned the honor as a protest against Jallianwala Bagh in 1919
Rabindranath Tagore won Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 and Rabindranath
was the first Indian to won Nobel Prize.
Literature Prize in 1913 for his seminal work Gitanjali
Honorific Gurudev by Mahatma Gandhi

Notable Works:

Gitanjali
Dak Ghar
Ghare Bhaire
Adaptations:
 Kabuliwala
Chokarbali
English Translation of his works
Fruit-Gathering 1916
The Fugitive 1921
The Gardener1913
Gitanjali: Song Offerings
Songs of Kabir
A Wrong Man in Workers Paradise
Translated from the original Bengali, Bhul Swargo by Bhabani
Bhattacharya

About the Short Story, Wrong Man in Workers Paradise:

The title suggests that this short story is about a man, who is mistakenly present in
workers paradise. The author uses satire and mocks at the perspective of the world
towards art. The author suggests that art for arts sake would serve the sole purpose of
art. By mocking the ways of the wrong man, the author sarcastically mocks at the people,
who do not know the value of art. The story also convinces us All work and no play make
Jack a dull boy.

Summary:

Once there lives a man, who has no useful work. He is indulged in mad whims like
making sculptures, quaint earthen things dotted over with seashells and painting. All
other people laugh at him for his foolish activities. He was the kind of a boy, who never
plies his books, yet passes his examinations. Sometimes, he thinks that he would stop all
such mad whims, but he is helpless due to his mannerism.

All think that he is not going to leave these habits any time soon. There he dies.
Nevertheless, a twist in the plot occurs, when there was a blunder committed by the
aerial messenger. The messenger puts this idle man in the paradise full of workers. It was
Workers Paradise, where all are busy in just working, working, and nothing else. The
residents of the paradise are so happy with the amount of work they do every day that
they pray to God for blessing them with such a humungous workload day in and day out.
In the workers paradise, everyone runs to work and recites the words like verses, Hurry!
Time is flying, Time is precious and so on. Though they sigh while doing so, they are as
happy as a clam. Henceforth, the sight of labor does not affect the man, who is unfit for
the paradise. He lounges in the streets absent-mindedly and jostled with hurrying men.
Busy farmers took him to task, when he would lay on the green meadows.

There the man sees a girl, who actively rushing towards the silent torrent every day to fill
her pitchers with water. Her movements on road look like the rapid movement of a
skilled hand on the strings of guitar. Her hair is carelessly done; few strands on her
forehead. The unemployed man gains her attention. Like a princess, who feels pity on
beggars, she feels pity on him because he did not have any work to do. In full of fellow
feelings, she asks him whether she could help him in any way. She offers him some work.
In reply, the man says he did not have time to spare for work but for the girl he might
manage to do some such sort. He asks her whether she could lend him her pitcher. Upon
which the girl enquires if he would fill it up with water. He replies, addressing her as the
girl-of-the-silent-torrent, that he would draw some pictures on the pitcher. The reply
makes her feel offended. As for her, drawing pictures and painting, were of no use. He
leaves without obliging him, in frustration.

The unemployed man requests the girl again the next day and the coming days.
Reluctantly, she gives one of her pitchers to him. He draws some random lines on the
pitcher and paints it in colors. Though the pitcher looks attractive, the girl could not
understand what the figures on the pitcher were. Helplessly, she asks him its meaning.
The man replies, in humor, A picture may have no meaning and may serve no purpose.
The girl goes away with the pitcher and is unable to sleep in the night. She gets off the
bed and tries to find the meaning of the picture. The next morning she is slow in walking
and confused. As she reaches the place where the man is standing, she asks him what he
actually wanted of her. To which the man replies that he wants to lessen her burden and
take some work from her hand. He weaves a colorful ribbon with gleaming colors, for her.

The girl, now, spends much time in front of the mirror, dressing up. As a result, her work
suffers. This disorder slowly spreads in the whole paradise. People are late to their work.
They practiced painting and all sorts of useless work. The elders become anxious about
the situation. Then the aerial messenger comes and explains her mistake of putting a
wrong man in workers paradise.
The man is summoned by the elder and is asked to leave the paradise straight away. He
sighs in happiness and is about to leave. Unexpectedly, the girl comes and says that she
too wanted to leave with him. All the residents of paradise are left astonished, as nothing
of this sort has happened before.

Irony: The writer employs irony throughout the story. He disregards art literally, but is
being sarcastic. His attitude towards art is actually the attitude of society towards it.