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The Laboratory
by
Rabindranath Tagore
general information | our review | links | about the author
| Title: | The Laboratory |
| Author: | Rabindranath Tagore |
| Genre: | Novel |
| Written: | 1940 (Eng. 2014) |
| Length: | 105 pages |
| Original in: | Bengali |
| Availability: | The Laboratory |
- Tagore's Last Novel
- Bengali title: ল্যাবরেটরি (published in the collection: তিন সঙ্গী)
- Translated by Arunava Sinha
- This translation first published in Rabindranath Tagore for the 21st Century Reader (2014)
- Previously translated by Madhuchchhanda Karlekar (in Selected Short Stories (2000))
- The Laboratory was made into a film in 2018, directed by Soumik Chattopadhyay
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Our Assessment:
B : solid story, featuring a very well-conceived and drawn main character
See our review for fuller assessment.
The complete review's Review:
The laboratory of the title is that of Nandakishore, an engineer with a degree from London University who went on to great business-success and: "built a big house for his scientific collections and experiments" -- importing: "expensive equipment from Germany and America, not to be found even in India's biggest universities".
Dedicated entirely to science -- "The man was eccentric, and science was his madness" --, he also: "died in old age of an accident connected to an audacious scientific experiment", leaving his considerably younger widow, Sohini as well as their just-adult daughter of marriageable age, Neelima (who calls herself Nila).
Sohini is an outsider of various sorts -- including, as she notes, "I am a woman from Punjab" (and wearing the dagger, which she seems perfectly ready to use (and not just to defend herself), to prove it).
It was twenty-year-old Sohini who chose Nandakishore, impressed by what she saw in him, admitting: "I have bewitched many men, but for the first time I've come across a man who can go one better than me".
He is impressed by her and, despite a background that surely makes her in multiple respects inappropriate, marries her, and they clearly had a good and very close marriage, their relationship in many ways one of equals, though Nandakishore was also a mentor, sharing his passion for science with her.
The most significant difference between them was that he did not have one of Sohini's character-flaws: "Suspicion was inherent to her nature", leaving her watching over him closely, even as she, as becomes clear, moved more freely and independently.
After Nandakishore's death, she has to face the hordes crawling out of the woodwork, eager to get a piece of the large pie he left -- "Dealers intent on cheating widows materialized from every direction. Those with the slimmest family connections laid traps of litigation" -- but she easily bests them all.
Devoted to her husband and his ideals, her overriding concern becomes the continuation of his scientific work, in the form of keeping the laboratory going: "His laboratory has become the god I worship".
There is enough money to do so -- but she needs to find the right scientist to entrust it to.
There's also the matter of Nila -- a free spirit of a different sort than her mother (or perhaps all too like her, as, watching over her, Sohini: "was reminded how explosive her own volcano was in her early youth").
Sohini tries to keep Nila out of trouble, but: "the impatient young woman was found to be eager to step into unsuitable territory given half a chance".
Sohini sees a possible solution to both her major concerns in the form of promising young scientist Rebati Bhattacharya, and arranges to introduce Nila to him -- an amusing staged scene, fully displaying Sohini's wiles and ways as she softens up Rebati before siccing Nila on him.
Sohini is successful insofar as Rebati is easily swept away by the beautiful young woman, and Nila seems to enjoy being seductive.
But Sohini grows dissatisfied with her plan.
She's sure Rebati's traditional aunt will put her foot down against any such union -- and, in any case, she's worried about Nila: " she's a destructive woman. Whatever she gets hold of will be destroyed" -- and the one thing that must not be destroyed is the laboratory and its continuing potential.
Sohini decides she can't leave the laboratory to Nila -- "If I bequeath it to her I have no idea which hole it will vanish in" -- and so she wants to donate it to the public, run by a trust, with Rebati installed as president.
A kind of chess game follows, Nila determined to seduce Rebati but Sohini now equally determined that he should run the laboratory -- and not marry Nila.
Nila sees the prohibition practically as a challenge -- even if ultimately Rebati doesn't seem like quite the catch she wanted.
But weighing the costs and benefits suggests it was still worthwhile hooking him:
Nila was not enamored enough of him. But marrying him was safe, for he was too weak to stop her from leading a dissolute life after her marriage. That was not all. The riches associated with the laboratory were considerable.Mother and daughter are closely matched, but Sohini has an unbeatable ace up her sleeve. As she tells Nila: "Look, Nila, you've barely begun to play your game of cunning, you cannot beat me at it yet". Sohini's final revelation puts an end to things; she proves herself a truly modern woman, not only in her actions but in publicly acknowledging them. It also shines additional light on her marriage, and Nandakishore's character and priorities -- not least, how truly: "he was dispassionately devoted to knowledge". And, as Sohini explains about what she reveals, and her husband:
Nothing was hidden from him, he knew everything. He got all that he had to from me, and he will get it today too. He didn't care for anything else.Rebati briefly shows some backbone, in wanting to go ahead with the marriage anyway, but Tagore beautifully rounds off his story in its final scene, as there are yet greater powers and forces that Rebati proves unable to stand up to.
Both Sohini and Nila are strikingly 'modern' women in this society -- though in Nila's case it's more of simply being a young adventurous flirt. Sohini is a deeper character -- manipulative, but also clearly very intelligent, and devoted to her husband and his cause. The arc of the story -- Sohini practically throwing Nila at Rebati, only then to be dead set against their union -- is somewhat odd, but it makes for a lively little drama. But, at a hundred generously-spaced pages The Laboratory sits uneasily between long short story and novel(la), neither tight enough to simply work as a story, nor expansive enough to make for a fully satisfying novel; while its scenes are often excellent, it practically begs for (much) more exposition.
The Laboratory has quite a cast of very independent-minded characters who do not let societal constraints hem them in -- including Nandakishore, but above all Sohini. (Interestingly, Tagore also makes -- or allows -- both Nandakishore and Sohini to enjoy great success in and with their lives, while for example Rebati is ultimately held back -- or even crushed -- by obeisance and tradition.) While the transgression Sohini admits to in the novel's conclusion is arguably the most 'shocking', it's only one part of a well-drawn, rich character -- a considerable achievement by Tagore.
- M.A.Orthofer, 13 July 2025
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The Laboratory:
- Chowringhee Press publicity page
- ল্যাবরেটরি - original text
- Rabindranath Tagore at books and writers
- Nobel Prize in Literature, 1913
- See Index of Indian literature
- See Index of Books by Nobel laureates under review
- See Index of Books Written Between 1900 and 1945
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Bengali author Rabindranath Tagore (রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর) lived 1861 to 1941. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913.
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© 2025 the complete review
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