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Tagore-Exercise book - Summary of tagore exercise book a
short story
English Language (University of Kerala)
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THE EXERCISE BOOK-RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Tagore’s short story The Exercise Book demonstrates the hollowness of a male-
dominated society, where women’s education and women’s basic rights are
ignored, their self-expression and identity suppressed. Tagore strongly felt the
need for social reforms, particularly in the areas of education, gender equality
and child marriage.
The story centres around the life of a girl child in Bengal named Uma. Her joys
and sorrows, and her innocent and justifiable aspirations, her life as a child-
bride form the crux of the story. The very first sentence of this short story
highlights the attitude of the family towards the girl child. Girls were not
expected to be educated in Tagore’s times. Rather they were thoroughly
discouraged to read and write. The story is narrated from the point of view of a
little girl called Uma and poignantly reveals her desire for education. It deals
with the themes of contradiction between age-long prejudice against female
education and new progressive thought of equality in educational opportunities
for women. Along with this theme, the theme of child marriage is also
juxtaposed in the story.
The protagonist of the short story is a little girl named Uma. As a child, she was
an exception as she had a chance to attend school. But as soon as she learnt to
write, she became a nuisance in the eyes of others. She took to scribble on every
wall of their house. She would draw unnecessary lines with a piece of coal and
she wrote the rhyme: ‘Raindrops on treetops’. With huge scrawled letters, she
obliterated most of the auspicious dates in the new almanac kept for household
use. Right in the middle of the credits column in her father’s account book, she
wrote:
”He who writes and studies hard
Will one day ride a horse and cart.”
Uma had a brother named Gobindalal who occasionally wrote essays on
physiology. One day she took out her brother’s pen and ink and scribbled on an
essay written by her brother. When her brother came to see her wickedness, he
became angry and confiscated her store of writing implements — a stubby
pencil, a blunt ink-pot and a stained pen. The humiliated little girl, unable to
fully understand the reason for so severe a punishment, sat in a corner of the
room and cried.
After the period of discipline was over, Gobindalal returned Uma’s looted
property and tried to assuage her by presenting her with a bound-rolled stout
exercise book. Uma was then seven years old. From that day on, that exercise
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Tagore-Exercise book - Summary of tagore exercise book a
short story
English Language (University of Kerala)
messages.pdf_cover_qr_code_label
messages.studocu_not_sponsored_or_endorsed_by_college
messages.downloaded_by
, lOMoARcPSD|28258466
THE EXERCISE BOOK-RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Tagore’s short story The Exercise Book demonstrates the hollowness of a male-
dominated society, where women’s education and women’s basic rights are
ignored, their self-expression and identity suppressed. Tagore strongly felt the
need for social reforms, particularly in the areas of education, gender equality
and child marriage.
The story centres around the life of a girl child in Bengal named Uma. Her joys
and sorrows, and her innocent and justifiable aspirations, her life as a child-
bride form the crux of the story. The very first sentence of this short story
highlights the attitude of the family towards the girl child. Girls were not
expected to be educated in Tagore’s times. Rather they were thoroughly
discouraged to read and write. The story is narrated from the point of view of a
little girl called Uma and poignantly reveals her desire for education. It deals
with the themes of contradiction between age-long prejudice against female
education and new progressive thought of equality in educational opportunities
for women. Along with this theme, the theme of child marriage is also
juxtaposed in the story.
The protagonist of the short story is a little girl named Uma. As a child, she was
an exception as she had a chance to attend school. But as soon as she learnt to
write, she became a nuisance in the eyes of others. She took to scribble on every
wall of their house. She would draw unnecessary lines with a piece of coal and
she wrote the rhyme: ‘Raindrops on treetops’. With huge scrawled letters, she
obliterated most of the auspicious dates in the new almanac kept for household
use. Right in the middle of the credits column in her father’s account book, she
wrote:
”He who writes and studies hard
Will one day ride a horse and cart.”
Uma had a brother named Gobindalal who occasionally wrote essays on
physiology. One day she took out her brother’s pen and ink and scribbled on an
essay written by her brother. When her brother came to see her wickedness, he
became angry and confiscated her store of writing implements — a stubby
pencil, a blunt ink-pot and a stained pen. The humiliated little girl, unable to
fully understand the reason for so severe a punishment, sat in a corner of the
room and cried.
After the period of discipline was over, Gobindalal returned Uma’s looted
property and tried to assuage her by presenting her with a bound-rolled stout
exercise book. Uma was then seven years old. From that day on, that exercise
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