I am indebted to my teacher Nazrul Islam for introducing me to the larger world of Tagore -- Tagore’s poems, short stories, novels, and drama at Faujdarhat Cadet College. The same goes for our beloved teacher Mohammad Zakerullah, who shared with us the chequered life of Tagore -- his childhood, his family, his marriage, and his definition of life.
Mr Islam used to tell us: “You complete your own Bengali literature syllabus, let me read out from Tagore, the best of his novels.” Believe me -- he read out all of Gora and Ghare Baire when we were in eighth grade.
And that was the beginning; I continued to read every book by Tagore or about Tagore in our school library -- be it Amar Chelebela, Nationalism, Two Sisters, Post Office, Mashi and other stories, Chitrangoda, and so on. Many may not believe that I have almost all the quotable quotes from Gora and Ghare Baire written in my school and college diaries. Tagore opened up a new vista of life to me, and in fact to all who read him or listen to his songs, or watch the dramas he wrote. I only wonder how he could write so much.
I wake up with Tagore songs on Tara music or Channel I, and try to go to sleep listening to his lyrics: “Tomar shure shure shur melate, amar bela je jay shaj belate” and others. I am very happy that the present government and its ministry concerned are doing a lot to highlight Tagore and his values. Our prime minister herself is an avid Tagore lover. Tagore was not only a poet or writer; he was a philosopher in every right. Tagore wrote: “Death’s stamp gives value to the coin of life, making it possible to buy with life what is truly precious.”
Rabindranath Tagore, the first non-European Nobel Prize winner in literature back in 1913, significantly enriched Bengali language, literature, and culture. Tagore is so relevant to our lives, so alive and contemporary, that we don’t need to remember him on a special day -- Srabon 22 or Boishakh 25. Tagore has inspired us to discern life through thinking, feeling, loving, realising, and thereby, living in full.
When we read the spontaneous reactions on his Gitanjali (Song Offerings) by three eminent poets, namely Irish poet WB Yeats, American poet Ezra Pound, and French poet Andre Gide, we can understand it is not about Bengali sentiments anymore. All of them could read Tagore only in translation, devoid of the linguistic nuances, subtlety of rhythm, and metrical inventions, untranslatable delicacy, cadence, and poetic communication available in the original Bengali.
Driven by divine inspiration, Tagore did not merely produce works of art, but a new art of living with creative impulses into a social context with which we, his readers, get charged up. Looking at the disconnect in his times and the crisis of civilisation, he became its healer, a discerner, and interpreter with the simplest magic of heart and feeling.
I wonder how he came up with “amar ma na hoye jodi hote onno karo ma.” I was so intrigued when I got to know what prompted him to write “keno jamini na jete jagale na.” Criticisms by Pramathanath Bishi, Pramatha Chowdhury, or Maitreyi Devi tell us a lot.
He is ever-lasting in our minds. He wrote so many things in so many ways, and truly believed in drinking life to the lees. When we read about Ratan in The Postmaster, we cried. Fatik in Chuti made us cry. Haimanti made us so sad, yet strong enough to protect women’s values. His Gora or Ghare Baire made us hate narrow patriotism, or philistinism. His Russiar Chithi or Europe Jatrir Diary still make us so open and respectful to other cultures.
Tagore’s writings reshaped Bengali literature and music. He is so vast, yet so meaningful. He wrote poetry as an eight-year-old. As a humanist, universalist, internationalist, and strident nationalist, he denounced the British Raj and advocated for independence. As an ardent champion of the Bengali renaissance, he advanced a sea of knowledge that comprised painting, sketches and doodles, hundreds of texts, and some 2,000 songs.
His legacy endures also in the institution he founded -- Visva Bharati University. His Gitanjali got him the Nobel Prize, and his compositions were chosen by two nations as national anthems -- India and Bangladesh. The lyrics and music for the original song of Sri Lanka’s national anthem were also the works of Tagore.
Tagore is vast, and engrossing. Tagore’s values and life remain so relevant to our lives. We live in Tagore, and live with Tagore. Tagore is our life and breath. Long live Tagore, long live tolerance, and long live universality.
