The Post Office

The Post Office is a play written by Rabindranath Tagore and first published in 1914.

The play revolves around Amal, a terminally ill orphan boy who is confined to his foster uncle Madhav's house in a small village.

Unable to go outside due to his illness, Amal spends his days at the window, chatting to passers-by and imagining the world beyond.

His vivid imagination becomes a way for him to connect with the world he cannot physically explore.

Amal is fascinated by a newly built post office nearby and dreams that the king will send him a letter. He idealises the postman as the bearer of distant news and dreams of becoming the king's postman.

"Madhav. What a state I am in! Before he came, nothing mattered; I felt so free. But now that he has come, goodness knows from where, my heart is filled with his dear self, and my home will be no home to me when he leaves. Doctor, do you think he—
Physician. If there's life in his fate, then he will live long. But what the medical scriptures say, it seems—
Madhav. Great heavens, what?
Physician. The scriptures have it: "Bile or palsey, cold or gout spring all alike.""