The Post Office

The Post Office (Bengali: Dak Ghar) is a play by Rabindranath Tagore, published in 1912. It was written in four days and concerns Amal, a child confined to his adoptive uncle's home by an incurable disease. Amal stands in the courtyard and talks with passers-by, asking in particular about the places they go.

The construction of a new post office nearby sparks the imaginative Amal's fantasies of receiving a letter from the King or becoming his postman. The village headman mocks him by pretending that the illiterate child has received a royal letter promising that the king's physician will come to attend him. The physician does arrive, with a herald announcing the king's imminent arrival, but Amal dies just as Sudha comes to bring him flowers.

The play holds a special place in Tagore's reputation, both in Bengal and in the wider world. W. B. Yeats produced the first English-language version, which was staged by the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in 1913, directed by Yeats and Lady Gregory. It had a successful run in Germany, and its themes of liberation from captivity and zest for life resonated in performances in concentration camps during World War II.