ICSE Class IX Sample Paper – The Postmaster by Rabindranath Tagore

ICSE Class IX Sample Paper – The Postmaster by Rabindranath Tagore 

Solved Contextual Question 

“But Ratan had no such philosophy to console her. All she could do was
wander near the post office, weeping copiously. May be a faint hope
lingered in her mind that dadababu might return: and this was enough
to tie her to the spot, prevent her from going far. Oh poor,
unthinking human heart! Error will not go away, logic and reason are
slow to penetrate. We cling (hug) with both arms to false hope,
refusing to believe the weightiest proofs against it, embracing it
with all our strength. In the end it escapes, ripping our veins and
draining our heart’s blood; until, regaining consciousness, we rush to
fall into snares (traps) of delusion (illusion) all over again”. 

i) What was the philosophy that consoled the postmaster? Why didn’t
Ratan have a philosophy to console her? 

       It was not that the postmaster did not feel occasional pangs of
sorrow when he was leaving the village without taking Ratan with him.
He reconciled himself with the situation by musing (reflecting) that
life had to go on regardless of the helplessness of the misery of the
orphan girl for whom he was neither responsible nor accountable to the
society or the world. He told himself that human bondage was after all
a frail thing which was often broken by the hard realities of life.
        But Ratan who was naive (immature) and impressionable (easily
influenced), did not share her master’s philosophy. Being young, she
was not yet hardened by the harshness of life and she was still
hopeful that her dadababu might somehow return to give her shelter in
the temple of his affectionate and kind heart. 

ii) What was Ratan’s hope? How would it help her? 

        Ratan hoped that her dadababu had ceased to be an employer and had
become her own elder brother. This perception of the relationship
between Ratan and the postmaster was but one sided and a delusion
(fantasy). This the innocent girl could neither comprehend nor
realise. She believed herself  to be a member of the postmaster’s
family and thought that her days of woe were over. She imagined
herself to be in the citadel (sanctuary) of his dadababu’s kind and
loving heart.

        Ratan’s simplicity and blind faith did not help her in the least.
This did nothing but cruelly tearing her heart into pieces. She
finally sank in a sea of misery and unbearable agony. What actually
happened to her was akin (similar) to a bleakness (isolation) which
was darker than the darkest of nights. 

iii) Why does the author exclaim ‘unthinking human heart’? Why do we
cling (stick) to false hopes? 

        Human hearts have a universality and the universality is that it is
powerlessly fond of hope even when it is a false one. Human beings
usually abhor (dislike) to take the path of logic. Clinging to unreal
and improbable aspirations, they never fail to allow themselves to be
struck by tragedy after tragedy.

        We all grip false hopes because it is simply human nature. What human
heart is mostly fond of is love but life being a very exacting
(demanding) affair indeed, it rarely offers an acceptable solution to
our miseries or woes. Yet, human nature is uncomprehending of this and
so goes on clinging to false hopes.