Remembering Tagore !

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On Gurudev’s  74th death anniversary…

Writes India Today:

Rabindranath Tagore attended Presidency College for only one day and left law school after attending it for only few months. He can perhaps be called the most successful and famous college dropout who went on write many short stories, poetry, plays, dramas and novels in his entire time. Tagore’s works were widely translated into English, Dutch, German, Spanish, and other European languages. He was born on May 7 and died on August 7, 1941.

Here listed some facts about Tagore’s life:

  • Born in West Bengal, Tagore used to avoid classroom schooling and preferred to roam around with his family
  • His brother Hemendranath physically tutored him in swimming, trekking through hills, gymnastics, judo and wrestling
  • English was Tagore’s least favourite subject
  • Tagore began writing poetry when he was only 8 years-old
  • He was only 16 when he released his first collection of poems under the pseudonym Bhanusimha
  • His education at the Presidency College spanned a single day
  • He believed that proper teaching does not explain things but stokes curiosity
  • Tagore enrolled at a law school in England because his father wanted him to become a barrister. He briefly stayed there and left it as well
  • Instead of going to school and colleges, he opted for independent study of Shakespeare, Religio Medici, Coriolanus, and Antony and Cleopatra
  • Tagore was 42 when he married Mrinalini Devi
  • Rabindranath Tagore  is the only known person to have written the national anthems for three different countries. He wrote ‘Jana Gana Mana’, the national anthem for India, ‘Amar Sonar Bangla’, the national anthem for Bangladesh and ‘Nama Nama Sri Lanka Mata’, in Bengali, for Sri Lanka
  • He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Gitanjali in 1913
  • The Nobel medal that was awarded to Rabindranath Tagore was stolen from a museum in Kolkata along with other valuables. However, on Tagore’s 100th birth anniversary, the Nobel Foundation issued a new Nobel medal to Tagore
  • At the age of 60, Rabindranath Tagore took up drawing and painting and held many successful exhibitions of his works
  • His works were inspired by the works of scrimshaw from northern New Ireland, Haida carvings from British Columbia and Max Pechstein’s woodcuts
  • The strange colour schemes in his paintings led to the belief that he was red-green colour blind
  • Tagore was an admirer of Mahatma Gandhi. It was Tagore who gave Gandhi the title of Mahatma to honour him.

A poem by Tagore:

 

The ocean of peace lies ahead of me

Sail the boat, O pilot

You are my constant companion now.

Take me in your lap

Along our journey to the infinite

The pole star alone will shine.

 

Giver of Freedom

Set me free.

May your forgiveness and compassion

Be my eternal resources for the journey-

May the mortal ties fall away,

May the vast universe

Hold me in embrace,

And with an undaunted heart

May I come to know the Great Unknown

 

– Rabindranath Tagore

 

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