In the opening lines of the story, Tagore uses a metaphorical idiom to capture the Postmaster’s relationship to Ulapur, the small town to which he has just moved:
The postmaster was a Calcutta boy—he was a fish out of water in a village like this […] The indigo agents and employees had hardly any spare time, and were not suitable company for an educated man. Or rather, his Calcutta background made him a bad mixer—in an unfamiliar place he was either arrogant or ill-at- ease. So there was not much contact between him and the residents in the area.
The metaphor that opens the story—that the Postmaster is “a fish out of water in a village like this”—helps readers understand right away that the Postmaster does not fit in to this rural setting. As a “Calcutta boy”—or person from a large city—the Postmaster is not used to the slower pace of life.
As the passage goes on to say, the Postmaster does not find the other people in the village “suitable company for an educated man” like himself—thus, “there was not much contact between him and the residents in the area.” This line highlights how the Postmaster comes from an urban middle-class background and looks down on the people of the village who have less access to wealth and resources.
