Sketch- 16

Name: Samir Bin Nayem

ID: 1431182030 Course Code: English 115 Section: 04.

Instructor: Dr. James Bryan Hileman.

Title: Prose fiction (DENA PAWNA)

One of the Bangla short story that I have read in my school life was Dena Pawna written by
Rabindranath Tagore. Basically, this story is based on a social curse named Dowry. It was the
social custom in ancient times. Similarly, this story showed how much toxic a social curse can
be. A man (Ramshundar Mitra) wanted to give marry his daughter Nirupama into a family of
higher social class, but she had to get married before her father can raise all of the money for the
exorbitant dowry. For her father’s inability to keep the given promise made her treated terribly in
her new home, and her father Ramshundar Mitra lives his life in shame, constantly trying to
scrounge together money to pay off his debt. He plunges his family into poverty to get the
money, but his daughter feels embarrassed by thinking that can her Father buy her dignity back.
This indigestible pain made her indifferent regarding family life, besides her husband was not
with her because he went to another region for his job since he was deputy magistrate. Her
careless life leading made her falls ill and after some days like this she died. Not delaying so
much after her death her mother-in-law quickly arranged a new marriage for her widower son.
This time dowry price was even higher.

Due to this social cause many families in rural areas still have to sacrifice their life, like
Nirupama did.