Tagore Omnibus, Volume 1
Page 82
As she uttered these words, an unnatural power seemed to grip her body. Her eyes dilated and blazed. She gripped Sarala’s hand, her voice grew shrill; she screamed, ‘You will have no place here, you witch, no place! I will stay, stay, stay!’
Suddenly the loose chemise-clad pale, shrivelled figure left the bed and stood up erect. In a strange voice she said, ‘Run, run, run away now, while you can! Otherwise every day of your life I will drive a stake through your heart—I will drain your blood away!’
Saying this she collapsed on the floor.
Hearing her voice Aditya came running into the room. Having spent all her life force, Neerja had breathed her last by then.
Glossary
Aparajita
A common creeper with blue flowers
Asoka
A tree with red flowers. In the Ramayana, Sita was held captive by Ravana in an asoka grove
Babu
Respectful term of address for male head of the family
Basanti
A tree bearing light orange blossoms
Batabi
The shaddock
Beedi
A kind of cheap cigarette rolled up in a tobacco-leaf
Bokul
Large evergreen tree with sweet scented flowers
Boudi/Boudidi
An elder brother’s wife, also term of respect for the mistress of the household
Britrashur
A demon who was slain by Indra and is the symbol of darkness
Chalta
A tree bearing edible acrid fruit
Dada
Elder brother, also respectful address
Didi
Elder sister
Didimoni
Respectful address for younger female member of the family
Dolon champa
Tree of the magnolia family, with pretty champak flowers
Duhshashan
Kaurava prince, Duryodhan’s brother, who tried to strip Draupadi naked in the royal court in the Mahabharata
Gondhoraj
The gardenia, a fragrant white flower
Indra
The king of the gods
Jarul
Oak-like tree whose timber is used to make furniture
Kalidasa
One of India’s greatest poets and dramatists, who lived between the 4th and the 5th century AD and wrote in Sanskrit
Kamini
A variety of sweet scented white flower
Khokhi
Equivalent of ‘my girl’, endearing term for a daughter or little girl
Makardhvaj
Medicinal sublimate of mercury, sulphur and gold
Mashi
Mother’s sister, respectful address for an older woman
Muchkundo
A variety of champak flower
Nagkeshor
A local flowering plant
Neem
The margosa tree
Paan
Betel leaves prepared with lime, catechu etc.
Prajapati
Brahma, the creator and protector of all living creatures
Rajanigandha
The tuberose
Rama
The seventh incarnation of Vishnu, the hero of the Ramayana
Ramakrishna
A mystic saint and seer from Bengal, who lived in the Paramhansa nineteenth century
Sanyasi
An ascetic
Shubhodrishti
Auspicious look exchanged between bride and bridegroom during the wedding ceremony
Thakurpo
Husband’s younger brother
Togor
A kind of larger white flower
Toka
A large straw hat to protect the head from the sun, generally used by farmers
THE BEGINNING
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This collection published 2005
Copyright © Mukunda Rao 2005
The moral right of the author has been asserted
ISBN: 978-0-144-00035-7
This digital edition published in 2015.
e-ISBN: 978-9-352-14096-1
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.