Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore..a man..an institution

I have heard and read about Rabindranath Tagore..........the writer, the poet, playwright, philosopher, composer, artist, the nobel Laureate,..since I must have been ten or so. But he was never a hero in my sense of the word.
It was my visit to the Jallianwalla Bagh in Amritsar , a few years back that I realised his heroic streak. It was after this incident that I tried to find more of this versatile personality.
Not many had the courage to defy the colnial English rulers, but not him. In1919, after the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, he renonced the knighthood which he had received in 1915.

We all know about the Nobel Prize for Literature that he received in 1913, and also of his SHANTI NIKETAN but not many know of his SHRINIKETAN . This was the Institute of Rural Reconstruction which was set up in 1921 along with the agricultural economist Leonard Wright Elmhirst.

He must be the only one whose canon hath two songs which are the national anthems of two countries. Jana Gana Mana we all know......the other is the Amar Sonar Bangla of Bangladesh.

He was a cultural reformer, wrote novels, short stories, songs, dance -dramas, and essays on political and personal topics.
He was a visual artist, a social reformer, an educationist, a nationalist, and a business manager whose work reshaped Bengali Literature and Music in the late 19th andearly 20th century.
He was also Asia's first Nobel Prize winner. So many feathers in one cap:hatsoff.

But after writing all of this I know that I have not done justice to him, he who is immortalised by the Rabindrasangeet which influenced the likes of Vilayat Khan, Buddhadeb Dasgupta and Amjad Ali Khan.
He who took up drawing and painting at the age of sixty should be a role model for all who think that age has caught up......so we are not upto new lessons.

And still when I think of 'Kabuliwalla'
I am entralled by his style, I read the story as a child but never realised that it was written by a great writer , coz even as a child I could relate to it. The best writings are those which seem simple yet touch one's soul.
His legacy can be felt by the different days commemorating him. His bith anniversary.....which falls today...is the annual Kabhipranam festival in the Bengali speaking world. And on his death anniversary, his loss is still mourned.

He was born on 7th of May 1861 and died at the age of eighty on 7th of August 1941. On this occasion I bow my head to remember him and his many facets.

In the last I'll talk of his most famous poem collection Geetanjli , which won the Nobel Prize. One of the poems is........

Amar e gan chheŗechhe tar shokol olongkar Tomar kachhe rakhe ni ar shajer ôhongkar Ôlongkar je majhe pôŗe milônete aŗal kôre, Tomar kôtha đhake je tar mukhôro jhôngkar.

Tomar kachhe khaţe na mor kobir gôrbo kôra, Môhakobi, tomar paee dite chai je dhôra. Jibon loe jôton kori jodi shôrol bãshi goŗi, Apon shure dibe bhori sôkol chhidro atar.
This means

"My song has put off her adornments. She has no pride of dress and decoration. Ornaments would mar our union; they would come between thee and me; their jingling would drown thy whispers."
"My poet's vanity dies in shame before thy sight. O master poet, I have sat down at thy feet. Only let me make my life simple and straight, like a flute of reed for thee to fill with music."( from wikipedia)