The Castaway'

The Castaway

"The Castaway" is an interesting story written by Rabindranath Tagore. The story depicts the love and care experienced by an orphan boy named Nilkanta from a young lady named Kiran.

One evening, in one of the riverside houses in the Chandernagore village,  Sharat and Kiran, a husband and wife, engaged in a verbal battle. There were heavy rainfall and thunderstorms occurring outside. Kiran was seriously sick and all her villagers wished that she would return to her house for a change. Kiran herself also wanted to go back to her native village because she believed that she was alright then. Moreover she felt boredom by doing nothing there.  But Sharat and his mother wanted her to stay a little longer because the doctor had suggested so. This was the subject of their verbal battle.

Suddenly, their quarrel was interrupted by a loud cry of a boy. It was Nilkanta, a survivor of an upturned boat in the river. He belonged to a drama group. Their boat perished in the river as they were going to a neighbouring village for a show. Nilkanta’s arrival gave Kiran a new birth. Sharat and his mother became very happy as Kiran would stay longer there in the company of Nilkanta. But Nilkanta soon made bad friendship with the naughty village boys and made a street dog as his pet. Soon, Sharat got many complaints from his neighborhood about Nilkanta and his friends. Though Sharat tried to send Nilkanta away , it became in vain by Kiran's strong protest.

Nilkanta performed various theatrical performances to entertain Kiran. Nilkanta was also very happy as he got motherly and sisterly love and care from Kiran. Meanwhile Sharat’s younger brother Satish came there to spend his vacation. Kiran and Satish were of the same age and they engaged all the time in merry-making. This made Nilkanta  jealous on Satish.  He wanted to take revenge upon Satish, so he took Satish’s favourite inkstand to throw  into the river. 

Finally the family decided to return to their native village. Kiran wanted to take Nilkanta with them, but all others opposed.  Kiran wanted to give him some surprise gifts and opened his box.  She was surprised to see Satish’s missing inkstand in it!  Meanwhile Nilkanta came there and saw Kiran sitting in his room holding the inkstand. He knew that he could not prove his innocence anymore and he left the place.