The Lost Jewel - Character Sketch of Mani and Bhushan

Rabindranath Tagore has been preeminent Bengali polymath and the first non-European to win a noble - prize. His short stories bear the charm of gluing its reader to the hem of their chairs and in never as mundane as the rising and setting of the sun at the horizon.

The usual setting of Tagore's stories is a river ghat and a rural village; not to mention the middle people for it is obvious. He has a nerve to glorify his female character and make the males characters suffer in most of his work. A story is a hundred times its worth when the writer touches upon the internal world of the characters rather than just sticking to the externals. Tagore has this wonderful blend of characteristics with which he spins his yarns to mesmerize the reader. Lost jewels is no deviation from this trend. Being born in an enslaved British India he was skeptical and apprehensive of the modernization sweeping the lengths and breadths of the country. Lost jewels merely serves as a surrogate though which he shoots his arrows of sarcasm.

The inception of the story is typically Indian. The narrator comes and sits near the author (presumably). He was a sort of person who was bubbling with inquisitiveness right from the top to bottom! The sequence of questions and answers is again a typical Indian gossip.

"What sort?

A dealer in cacoons and Timber.

What name?

After a while of hesitation I have him a name but it wasn't my own.

Why have come here?

For a change of air.

Sir I must tell you that I've been enjoying the air of this place for nearly six years with a daily of average of 15 grains of quinine and I don't feel I've benefitted much……."

The narrator begins his story about the huge eerie house with tumbledown verandas.

"But he was modern. Bhushan Saha was not only spoke faultless English but actually entered the Sahib's office with his shoes on. In addition to that he also grew a beard. There was no possibility for him in bettering himself as far as the Sahib's were concerned."

"There was another drawback in his home. His wife was beautiful …."

"With his college education on one hand and his beautiful wife on the other what hope was there to preserve our good old tradition?"

Thus Bhushan Saha as he is introduced as a fine gentleman, is too sober in his ways, an idealistic person indeed. He loved his wife from the deepest core of his heart which alas was not reciprocated. Bhushan was excessively possessive of Mani and altogether too submissive. he was a man that scarcely belonged to the century in which he was born.  

"He should have been born five or six centuries hence when the world would be moved by the psychic forces. He was unfortunate to have a wife who belonged to the 19^th century."

Thus Bhushan was a misfit in the society and Mani his wife was totally obverse of what he was.

"Mani looked upon his husband as a mere machine for tuning out her Decca Muslins and bangles without being able to pride herself over a victory."

"Mani always worked and saved and was never sick nor sorry. She preserved everything with one exception of her husband's caresses."

"….Perhaps beauty is best preserve in a heart that is an ice-box."

Mani was exceptionally beautiful.

"She had not lost an atom of her youthful beauty."

Although being such a gifted woman she was an utter failure in her life. She had no children to look after save her jewelry which grew from year to year as though it were her very children! Feeding religious mendicants was not her way. She never gave any alms nor did she mix much with the neighbors. All that she cared for in her life was the jewelry that her husband foolishly have her thinking that the way to get is to give.

Ups and downs is the way of the business. Bushan being a businessman was in a need of a Lakh and a half. The core of this matter, he in the most hesitating manner broached to his wife Mani. True love is ever-ready to sacrifice even the most valuable possession to bring a grin on the face of his/her beloved. But Mani instead of helping her husband in his period of hardships flatly refused him even of the slightest aid.

"He was deeply hurt but was incapable of retuning the hurt back."

Bhushan even then was so stuffed with loft morals that he didn't jeer at her. There was not a trace of barbaric nature in him. He at a length hired the requisite sum from Calcutta.

But in the interim Mani had flown on the advice of his sloppy brother Modhu to her father's place. Bhushan upon returning from Calcutta was grief stricken not finding Mani around. The area in vicinity was ransacked but neither Modhu nor Mani were to be found. Thus day upon day he sulked and returned to a dream world which eventually severed his soul from his body.

Such was the tragic end of the story said that narrator which of course was a bluff as the man to which he was telling was himself none other Bhushan Saha.

Nonetheless Bhushan was a very delicate and sober man in contrast to the shrewd, possessive Mani. This story teaches us many lessons. Firstly avarice is the root cause of all evil. Also the story ran around and emphasized on the need of 'Balance in a relationship.' Furthermore possessiveness and obsession of all kinds leads us to hell. All of these nobble ideals finely interwoven in a succulent banquet is what Lost Jewels is!