Tags: Calcutta, City vs. country, Allahabad, Benares (Varanasi), Widows, Adultery, Asceticism

Full text of this novel here.


The novel "Eyesore" (Chokher Bali) by Rabindranath Tagore is a study of desire, jealousy, and the societal constraints of early 20th-century Bengal, centered on the lives of Mahendra, his wife Asha, and the widow Binodini. It was initially translated into English in 1914 and published serially in The Modern Review by Surendranath Tagore, though no book version of the novel appeared during the Tagore 'boom' of the 1910s and 20s. As a result, it is less well-known to western readers than other novels by Tagore (especially The Home and the World). In India, however, it is a well-known story that has been adapted many times by filmmakers, including, most recently, a 2003 adaptation with Aishwariya Rai as Binodini.  

The Refusal and the First Marriage

The story begins with Mahendra, a 22-year-old medical student who is deeply pampered and "wayward" due to the doting care of his mother, Rajlakshmi. Rajlakshmi attempts to arrange a marriage for him with Binodini, a beautiful and educated girl from their village who was taught by an English missionary.

"I beg to be excused mother," said Vihari with hands folded in mock supplication, "many a time have I taken at your bidding the sweetmeats that your Mahendra has refused as not to his taste, but when it comes to a girl I really must draw the line." Binodini's father had not been particularly rich, but he had engaged a missionary lady to teach his daughter to read and write and do fancy needlework. She was getting past the age when marriage ought to have been thought of, but that had escaped him altogether.

Mahendra stubbornly refuses the match without even seeing her, leading Binodini to marry a distant cousin. Shortly after the wedding, Binodini becomes a widow, while Mahendra jokes about his "luck" in avoiding the marriage.

Three years later, the focus shifts to Mahendra’s aunt, Annapurna, who wishes him to marry her orphaned niece, Asha. Mahendra initially tries to set Asha up with his best friend, Vihari, but upon seeing the girl's "pathetic" beauty during a formal viewing, Mahendra is captivated. He eventually decides to marry her himself, and Vihari, out of loyalty and a sense of duty to Annapurna, steps aside.

Domestic Friction and the Arrival of Binodini

Mahendra’s marriage to Asha is characterized by an intense, almost "reckless" obsession. He neglects his medical studies and his mother to spend all his time with Asha. This creates significant tension with Rajlakshmi, who feels displaced by her daughter-in-law. To reclaim a sense of order and peace, Rajlakshmi eventually goes to her village and returns with Binodini, whom she has grown to rely on for her domestic efficiency and sweet temperament.

Binodini quickly establishes herself as a "fixture" in the household. She is the antithesis of Asha; while Asha is "helpless" and uneducated in household management, Binodini is an "adept" at every task.

Now-a-days if Mahendra sent for his wife when she was with his mother, Asha would hesitate to go. But Rajlakshmi would rebuke her, saying, "Don't you hear, Mahin wants you,—or is that beneath your notice? The result of being over-petted I suppose! You needn't pretend to be attending to the cooking—there's nothing to keep you here." Then the farce with slate and pencil and reader began all over again! The charging each other with fancied offences against love's code! The futile quarrels over weighing one's love against the other's! The making the rainy day into night and the moonlight night into day. The getting so habituated to each other as to lose all delight in companionship and yet be afraid to free oneself from its toils! 

Binodini and Asha form an intense friendship, adopting the pet name "Eyesore" for one another.

"Let's have a pet-naming ceremony," said Asha. "What name shall it be?" asked Binodini with a smile. Asha suggested Ganga , Vakula and many such names of nice things. "All these are so hackneyed!" complained Binodini. "Pretty names have lost their pretty meanings." "What would you like, then?" asked Asha. "Eyesore," laughed Binodini. Though Asha had a leaning towards sweet-sounding names she accepted the pet term of raillery suggested by Binodini. "O my Eyesore!" she cried, as she clasped Binodini round the neck, and then she went off into a fit of laughter.

However, Binodini’s presence is double-edged. While she ostensibly helps Asha, she is secretly fueled by a "thirsting heart" and a bitter realization that the life and husband Asha enjoys could have been hers.

The Web of Infatuation

Binodini begins to manipulate Mahendra’s growing dissatisfaction with Asha’s perceived incompetence. She creates a "tangled situation" by engaging in contests of wit and badinage with Mahendra, often in front of the oblivious Asha.

Gradually, asserting the prerogative of her friendship, Binodini took things away from Asha's hands into her own. And then was the improvement at once evident. Asha would be fumbling with a coat with a lost button, at a loss exactly what to do. Binodini would snatch it away from her, produce a button, and sew it on, before Asha could recover from her surprise. Had a cat, at the last moment, spoilt the dish that was to be served to Mahendra? Poor Asha would be at first in despair, and then completely mystified at the way in which Binodini would promptly be off into the kitchen and replace it with something made up out of this and that at a moment's notice. Thus in his food and dress, in his work and rest, in every thing did Mahendra feel her comforting touch. Binodini's embroidered slippers were on his feet, her knitted scarf clung softly round his neck. And Asha, adorned for him by Binodini's skilful hands, like the Ganges and Jumna after their confluence, represented alike in the beauty and in the joy of her presence the union of both the friends!

Mahendra, finding Binodini’s "chiselled features" and intellectual sharpness irresistible, becomes increasingly infatuated. This infatuation is further stoked by Binodini’s alternating displays of "cold distance" and "tender solicitude".

Vihari remains a constant observer and moral compass, becoming the first to see through Binodini’s schemes. He warns Mahendra that Binodini is "deliberately luring" him into sin, leading to a violent rupture in their friendship. Despite his warnings, Vihari himself is deeply affected by Binodini; he recognizes a "vestal virgin" within her despite her "arid frivolity," and she, in turn, finds in Vihari the only man she truly respects.

Scandal and Flight

The psychological tension breaks into open scandal when Mahendra discovers a letter from Binodini to Vihari, expressing a deep, hidden affection.

That same night Vihari left Calcutta by the West-bound train. The man who had taken Binodini's letter, finding Vihari away, brought it back. Mahendra was then in the strip of garden in front of the house. "Whose letter is that?" he asked. The messenger told him. Mahendra took it away. At first his idea was to hand the letter to Binodini, witness her guilty flush of shame, and then leave her without a word. He had no doubt as to Binodini having reason to be ashamed of its contents. He remembered having intercepted another such message to Vihari. He felt an overpowering temptation to know what was in this letter. He was Binodini's guardian, he argued, and responsible for her behaviour while she was staying with them. How could he allow such a suspicious circumstance to remain uninvestigated. It certainly would not do to allow Binodini to go wrong without doing something. He opened the little note and read it. It was in the spoken language, and clearly came from her heart. After reading the letter over and over again Mahendra could not decide where Binodini's heart really was. "I said I did not love her," he repeated to himself. "So she is trying to find consolation elsewhere. Her wounded pride must have led her to give up all hopes of me." 

Consumed by "jealousy" and unable to maintain the facade of a happy marriage, Mahendra eventually abandons his home to be with Binodini. They flee to the West, staying in places like Giridih and Allahabad.

However, this flight does not bring Mahendra the happiness he sought. Binodini remains "distant" and "obdurate," treating Mahendra with a mix of "contempt" and "indifference". She makes it clear that her heart belongs to Vihari, even as she uses Mahendra as a means of escape from her village exile. Mahendra is left "miserably ashamed," realizing he has traded his family’s honor for the company of a woman who loathes him.

Back in Calcutta, the household is in ruins. Asha is devastated, feeling "useless" and "unworthy," while Rajlakshmi falls deathly ill with a weak heart and dropsy. Annapurna returns from Benares to care for the family and sends for Vihari, who has been living in a riverside villa at Bally, focusing on philanthropic work for poor clerks.

The Resolution and Redemption

Vihari eventually tracks Mahendra and Binodini to a villa in Allahabad. In a dramatic confrontation, Vihari confronts Mahendra’s cowardice and, in a moment of supreme sacrifice, offers to marry Binodini to give her a "refuge". Binodini, though deeply moved by Vihari’s "reverence," rejects the offer. She realizes that as a widow with a "stain on her name," she would only "drag him down" in society. She chooses instead to atone for her actions by dedicating her life to service.

The group returns to Calcutta as Rajlakshmi enters her final days. On her deathbed, the mother reconciles with Mahendra, forgiving him for the "great pain" he caused. She also reconciles with Binodini, acknowledging the genuine "affection" Binodini showed her during her illness. Rajlakshmi’s death serves as the final catalyst for the family’s transformation.

In the end, Binodini departs for Benares with Annapurna to live a life of "ascetic" devotion. Before leaving, she asks for Asha’s forgiveness, and the two "Eyesores" share a final, bittersweet moment of connection. Mahendra, humbled by his "sin," begs for forgiveness from both Binodini and Vihari. He vows to reform his "useless" life by assisting Vihari in his charitable missions, and he finally turns his heart back to Asha, who has emerged from the ordeal with a newfound "grace" and "strength". The novel concludes with the "tangled thread" of their lives being slowly undone, replaced by a somber but "satisfactorily" settled future.