May 10, 2022, Tagore.

This write-up is contributed by Mr. Sugato Roy.

Tagore.

25^th Boisakh marks the Birth Anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, the Bard of Bengal, the multitalented brilliance and one of the most celebrated litterateurs ever in the history of mankind. Not only was he a poet, novelist and essayist, but Tagore was also one of the greatest thinkers of all times, composer, painter, and last but not least a humanist. As long as the history of culture, civilization and literature exists, Tagore’s name will always be embossed in golden letters. The name Rabindranath is infinite and perpetual.

Let us have a glimpse at some of the  interesting  points of Tagore’s illustrious   life

• Tagore was born on 7^th May 1861 which was the 25^th of Boisakh according to the Bengali calendar. Tagore’s birthday is celebrated on the 25^th of Boisakh always which falls on the 9^th of May. This year too Tagore’s Birth Anniversary is being celebrated on the 9^th of May.
• Tagore was an avid traveller and he visited more than thirty countries on all the five continents in a little more than five decades. Some of the people whom he met were legends like  Albert Einstein, Victoria Ocampo,  Romain Rolland, Robert Frost, HG Wells, George Bernard Shaw,  Thomas Mann, and Aga Khan III, apart from Heads of State like The Shah of Iran,   Reza Shah Pahlavi and the then  Italian Supremo,  Mussolini.
• In 1913 Tagore got the Nobel Prize in literature for one of the world’s most acclaimed collections of poems, Geetanjali. Tagore became the first non-European to win the coveted prize. In the citation given along with the Nobel, the Prize Committee profusely praised Tagore for the extraordinary and astounding way he has expressed the verses with beauty, sensitivity and freshness.
• Tagore remains the only person in the world to have composed the national anthem of two countries, India and Bangladesh. Ananda Samarakoon a former Vishwa Bharati student translated the lyrics of SRI LANKA MATHA the Sri Lankan national anthem from Bengali to Sinhalese from one of Tagore’s compositions.
• Rabindranath’s father, Maharshi Debendranath Tagore wanted him to become a barrister. The young Tagore was sent off to England and got himself enrolled at the Public School in Brighton, East Sussex. He stayed there at the Tagore owned villas at Brighton and Hove. Tagore studied law at the University College, London. Destiny had other grand plans and Tagore was soon mesmerized by the works of Shakespeare like Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus and a host of other masterpieces. 
• One of the most epoch-making works of Tagore was the setting up of Vishwa Bharati at Shantiniketan near Bolpur in 1921. Tagore hardly believed in the conventional system of education. He never wanted education confined within the four walls of the classroom. Tagore was always for education in the open space so that the mind is free and the soul, psyche and core of the heart are firmly connected to nature. To this day, Vishwa Bharati classes are held in the ambience of nature under the trees. 
• Whenever Tagore visited a new country, the Government of that nation would pledge a huge sum of money for Vishwa Bharati in honour of Tagore.
• The Partition of Bengal took place in 1905 at the behest of Lord Curzon, the then Viceroy on 16^th October. Bengalis in particular apart from all Indians fervently protested against this unjustified and unfounded order of Curzon. Tagore vehemently opposed the move and declared that day to be observed as a day of national mourning. People irrespective of any faith did not even bother to cook food on that day. At Tagore’s request, Bengali Hindus and Muslims tied rakhi on each other’s wrists as a symbol of protest and furthering communal harmony.
• Tagore was conferred the knighthood by His Royal Highness King George V in 1915. The Jaliwanwalla Bagh massacre in Punjab took place in 1919, leaving Tagore stunned, shocked and mentally distressed. Immediately Tagore relinquished his knighthood and condemned this barbaric act of the British administration by penning a strong protest letter to Lord Chelmsford, the then Viceroy.

The vast collection of more than  2200 Rabindrasangeet will continue to enthral and enchant the world audience till the time music and melody exist under the sun.

Mr. Sugato Roy

GRADUATE FROM ST XAVIER’S COLLEGE AND POST GRADUATE FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF CALCUTTA, SPECIALIZING IN MARKETING MANAGEMENT AND ADVERTISING MANAGEMENT.  PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE OF 24 YEARS IN VARIOUS CAPACITIES IN ADVERTISING AND PUBLISHING INDUSTRY.  HAS BEEN AWARDED FOR  LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT IN ADVERTISING AND PUBLICITY MANAGEMENT.

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