সুনীল গঙ্গোপাধ্যায়ের লেখা রানু ও ভানু

Rabindranath receives hundreds of letters from all over the country every day. As much as possible, he replies to them. One day, upon receiving a letter, the poet felt a sense of amusement. A twelve-year-old girl named Ranu wrote to him from Varanasi. Despite her young age, she had read many of his works and considered him her favorite person. The girl’s complaint was, why had the poet been writing so few stories lately? Rabindranath replied to her letter.

In his domestic life, Rabindranath never found deep peace. Suddenly, after prolonged illness, his beloved eldest daughter, Madhurilata, passed away, leaving him shattered. That same day, in his restless state, he hired a carriage and went to Bhawanipur. Matching the house number, he arrived in front of a home and called out loudly, "Ranu! Ranu!" A young girl rushed down quickly. Rabindranath stared without blinking. Who was this he was seeing? Was she a fairy, or a celestial nymph?

That very day, a strange bond was formed between the fifty-eight-year-old poet and this young girl. Ranu became his playmate, the muse for his new writings, and his lost ‘Bouthan’ (sister-in-law). And to Ranu, Rabindranath became her dear "Bhanudada"—her own beloved Bhanudada.

During Rabindranath’s trip to China, without his knowledge, Ranu’s marriage was arranged. Today, Ranu is the wife of Biren, the son of Sir Rajen Mukherjee, and the mother of two children. Rabindranath is now old. What did he receive from Ranu in the twilight of his life? Was it only the "beauty of sorrow in tears"?

This is an extraordinary and incomparable novel penned by Sunil Gangopadhyay.