Thursday, September 30, 2010
RABINDRANATH TAGORE: A TIMELINE
7th May, 1861 - Born in Calcutta, India.
1868 - Wrote his first poem when he was just 7 years old.
1878 - Tagore's first book of poems appeared.
1878 - Went to England for higher studies.
1879 - Came back to India.
1883 - Got married to Mrinalini Devi.
1890 - Manasi, a collection of Tagore's poems was published.
1890 - Settled at Shilaidaha in Kushthia (now in Bangladesh)
2nd December, 1901 - Founded school at Shanti Niketan .
1902 to 1907 - Rabindranath's wife, father, daughter Renuka and son Samindra died.
1905 - Bengal was partitioned; Rabindranath was gripped by the fever of Nationalism.
1910 - He got his son married to a young widow Pratima Devi. He was a staunch supporter of widow remarriage.
1910 - Wrote Gitanjali in Bengali.
1911 - Wrote ‘Jana Gana Mana’ which later became our National Anthem.
1912 - Gitanjali was published in English.
1913 - Awarded Nobel Prize in literature.
1915 - Knighted by the British king George.
1919 - Renounced his knighthood following the Jallianwala massacre incident.
1924 - Tagore opened Vishva Bharati University at Shanti Niketan.
1929 - Tagore began painting.
7th August, 1941- Rabindranath Tagore died in Calcutta, India
Selected poems from ‘GITANJALI’
1. 1. Mind Without Fear
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up
into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason
has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action---
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
2.2. Song Unsung
The song that I came to sing remains unsung to this day.
I have spent my days in stringing and in unstringing my instrument.
The time has not come true, the words have not been rightly set;
only there is the agony of wishing in my heart.
The blossom has not opened; only the wind is sighing by.
I have not seen his face, nor have I listened to his voice;
only I have heard his gentle footsteps from the road before my house.
The livelong day has passed in spreading his seat on the floor;
but the lamp has not been lit and I cannot ask him into my house.
I live in the hope of meeting with him; but this meeting is not yet.
3. 3. Prisoner
`Prisoner, tell me, who was it that bound you?'
`It was my master,' said the prisoner.
`I thought I could outdo everybody in the world in wealth and power,
and I amassed in my own treasure-house the money due to my king.
When sleep overcame me I lay upon the bed that was for my lord,
and on waking up I found I was a prisoner in my own treasure-house.'
`Prisoner, tell me, who was it that wrought this unbreakable chain?'
It was I,' said the prisoner, who forged this chain very carefully.I thought my invincible power would hold the world captive
leaving me in a freedom undisturbed.
Thus night and day I worked at the chain
with huge fires and cruel hard strokes.
When at last the work was done
and the links were complete and unbreakable,
I found that it held me in its grip.'
44. Still Heart
When I give up the helm
I know that the time has come for thee to take it.
What there is to do will be instantly done.
Vain is this struggle.
Then take away your hands
and silently put up with your defeat, my heart,
and think it your good fortune to sit perfectly still
where you are placed.
These my lamps are blown out at every little puff of wind,
and trying to light them I forget all else again and again.
But I shall be wise this time and wait in the dark,
spreading my mat on the floor;
and whenever it is thy pleasure, my lord,
come silently and take thy seat here.
RABINDRANATH TAGORE: THE UNIVERSAL POET
“What makes the poet the potent figure that he is, or was, or ought to be, is that he creates the world to which we turn incessantly and without knowing it and he gives to life the supreme fictions without which we are unable to conceive of it.”
-WALLACE STEVENS
Great leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi and learned men and women hailed him as their teacher. He was the recipient of the Nobel Prize for literature. As a poet he was near equivalent to luminaries like William Shakespeare, Kalidasa or Thiruvllavur. He was an educationist par excellence. He was one of the stalwarts to bring about a renaissance in Indian Literature during pre-independence days.
The nation would stand in salute on hearing the National Anthem when played. The great poet who gave this song to India was Rabindranath Tagore. The descriptive details in the earlier paragraph would cover a few of the great achievements of that eminent soul.
Tagore’s ancestors were opulent. They were of the opinion that riches were meant for helping and giving to others. Munificence overtook opulence, resulting in debts. Tagore’s father Devendranath Tagore took earnest efforts to wipe out the loan and succeeded eventually to the extent of again turning out the munificent.
Born to Devendranath Tagore and Sarada Devi on the 7th of May, 1861, Rabindranath Tagore was the last child with eight elder brothers and five elder sisters. It was natural that he was adored and loved by one and all.
Tagore in his youth enjoyed himself playing as a teacher and a Vedic scholar. Without friends to play with, Tagore rejoiced himself enjoying the felicity of solitude.
Seeing children in the neighbourhood going to school, Tagore pestered his parents to send him to school. Finally, winning his case, Tagore was in school. Very soon, he realized that it was a painful experience to spend days in school. Tagore felt that it was more of a jail than a school. To add to the pain, Tagore had to learn lessons from private tutors at home in the evenings. It was an irony that Tagore hated the English language in his youth.
When those days became unpleasant for Tagore, a call from his father to spend sometime in the Himalayas came as a pleasant surprise. Compared to the hardships experienced at home, Tagore felt that the time spent there was like an oasis in the desert.
The latent poetic instinct in Tagore got rejuvenated. Taking a long stroll in the mornings and evenings, he drank every bit of nature’s beauty. On his return to the abode, he spent time with his father learning history, astrology and literature.
Later, Tagore was sent to England and in his short sojourn of a year and a half there; he had ample opportunities to interact with learned people from different fields. This experience added to his brilliance.
Tagore married a pious lady by the name Mrinalini Devi at the age of 22, who gave active support to the poet. With her inspiration, Tagore’s creativity assumed increased dimensions.
Compassionate by nature, Tagore empathised with the poor. It was a burning desire in Tagore to open a university of a unique nature mostly functioning on our ancient tutelage system. When approached, Tagore’s father gave instantaneous consent. That was the birth of ‘Shantiniketan’ which was later rechristened as University of Vishwa Bharathi. The Nobel Laureate gave his entire belongings for its formation and maintenance.
The poet’s love for the country was great. To infuse patriotism in the public mind, Tagore wrote several poems. When the British Army was once unruly in handling a crowd, ending in genocide in Punjab, the agonized poet returned the ‘Sir’ title to the government.
Tagore in all wrote more than 3000 poems, 15 different books filled with articles touching on subjects like philosophy, religion, politics and literature. His autobiography was very famous. He was a voracious reader and a workaholic. ‘Gitanjali’ an anthology of 103 poems written at different times in the worship of God won him world fame. This compilation contributed its major share in inning the coveted Nobel Prize for literature in the year 1913. Tagore was the first Asian to win a Nobel Prize.
With his essential qualities as altruism and compassion, Tagore identified the presence of the Lord Supreme in nature’s beauty and hard labour. He was exhilarated by God’s wonders. His thought blossomed into beautiful poems. It would be a blissful experience to recall some of them.
When a labourer struggled hard to break a piece of rock, there appeared God. He was found dancing in ecstasy in a place where stones were broken to pieces to be used for remodelling the roads. He lived along with the workers under the scorching sun and the torrential downpour of rain. The Lord appeared in their unclean clothes. In a nutshell, Tagore advocated that a life close to nature identifying the existence of the Lord in nature’s splendour, compassion for other living beings and seeing God in the hard working labourer would easily pave the path for a happy life.
Tagore never allowed himself to be bound by the shackles of religion. He felt that religion was an effort to cage the unperceivable God within and He could appear in the form of a servant, a child, a mendicant or a king. The poet advocated the thought that while nobody could see God with the naked eyes, a person distancing himself from the world and its people would never see the God. Tagore was f the view that total independence was the priceless treasure that a man could long for and nothing could be more precious than that.
In spite of the name and fame that he had, Tagore was the epitome of humility. He was once asked as who could be the greatest poet of the era, for which pat came the reply that there was no one who could enjoy that supremacy. According to him, while the life in the vast expanse of the world was great with numerous countries, cities, rivers, mountains, deserts, plants and trees present, his mind was resting in a small corner.
On the 7th August 1941, Tagore left his mortal coil. Vishwa Bharathi and his creative literature would stay forever and his noble soul would be amidst us all the time.
Life is an eternal sacrifice at the altar of death!
ARTICLE BY: KAVYA P.
3RD YEAR, B.A. (PJOE)
RABINDRANATH TAGORE’S VIEWS ON EDUCATION
“At half past ten, in the morning the factory opens with the ringing of a bell, and then as the teachers start talking, the machines start working. The teachers stop talking at four in the afternoon when the factory closes and the pupils then go home carrying with them a few pages of machine made learning”.
This statement made by Rabindranath Tagore almost a century ago finds relevance even today and speaks volumes on the nature of the ‘education’ that we as ‘students’ are subjected to. The problems plaguing the current educational system are the same as the ones which Rabindranath Tagore observed in his times.
Tagore’s approach to education was unique in its approach to it. It gave much emphasis to the ‘freedom of thought’ and imagination. Tagore’s idea of education was driven by interest rather than need as is prevalent today. One would simply seek to learn what interested him and hence would be sincere in his efforts towards it. Speaking on the place of religion in the education system, Rabindranath Tagore said, “Nature and human spirit, wedded together, would constitute our temple and selfless good deeds, our worship”.
Tagore was sensitive to the plight of the peasants in Bengal and realized that the only way by which people could discover the bond that held them together as a society was through education. Hence, he advocated the cause of education to bring in the strength required for being self-sufficient, local governing bodies to the villages. Tagore considered the lack of education to be the main obstacle in the way of India’s progress and at the root of all its problems. The prevailing, colonial education system he found unsatisfactory since the only objective it appeared to serve was to produce clerks to man government offices and British businesses in India. The basic objectives of any worthwhile national education system, such as promoting creativity, freedom, joy and an awareness of a country’s cultural heritage, were completely ignored.
The ideal school, according to Tagore, should be established away from the turmoil of human habitation under an open sky and surrounded by vistas of fields, trees and plants. Living in a forest was also associated with austere pursuits and renunciation.
The vast background of nature represented a grand perspective against which all objects, all feelings assumed their due proportions.
“Books have come between our mind and life. They deprive us of our natural faculty of getting knowledge directly from nature and life and have generated within us the habit of knowing everything through books. We touch the world not with our mind, but with our books. They dehumanize and make us unsocial…. Let the students gather knowledge and materials from different regions of the country, from direct sources and from their own independent effort”, said Tagore speaking of bookish learning.
The Ashram school of Shantiniketan was founded in the year 1901 by Tagore on the basis of the ancient Indian system of Gurukul schooling. Here education was provided free of cost on the ancient ‘Vidya daan’ concept and was residential in nature with the students living with the teachers on the campus. On the occasion of its foundation, Tagore observed. ''Our education should be in full touch with our complete life, economic, intellectual, aesthetic, social and spiritual.”
Such was the vision of a man who saw education as a means to bring about change in society and more importantly revolutionize the individual!
ARTICLE BY: PANKAJ A. DESAI
3RD SEMESTER, B.A.
PSYCHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF “THE HOMECOMING”
“Children aren’t happy with nothing to ignore for and that’s why parents were created”.
Childhood is considered as one of the most important and delicate phase of human life span. Seeking the first sense of knowledge, love and belonging, the child’s mind is curious to the level which we can’t think of. In the story, Tagore gives us a clear picture on how a child, when brought up in an atmosphere like village can cause quite a lot of disturbance to people around him because of his curious and mischievous attitude.
1st phase of the story
Phatik is known for his pranks and naughty behaviour, which often comes at the cost of disrupting the peace and well being of people in village. At home, the case is no different. His mother is shocked to see him hurt his younger brother with is mischievous pranks. Thus, considering him as a big threat and an unending problem to people around, Phatik’s mother decides to send him with his uncle to Calcutta for further education. Phatik is extremely interested with his mother’s idea and readily agrees to go with his uncle.
Factors causing Phatik’s behavior
1. He is faced with immense freedom in his village.
2. The age factor: Childhood is known for its great share of mischievous behavior from children.
3. His mistakes are seen as burdens, instead of looked upon as the natural pranks of a boy growing up.
4. His mother is not ready to reform his behavior( thus decides to send him with his uncle)
2nd phase of the story
Phatik is introduced to an entirely different atmosphere when compared to the earlier one. Calcutta, which, in his mind was a place for him to play more, enjoy more and fulfill all his desires, comes as a great let down. The vastness of the city does not let him explore it on his own and thus prone to restriction. The feeling of homeliness eludes Phatik as his aunt is always full of complaints for whatever he does.Adding to the environmental changes; he is met with physical and mental changes in himself. He undergoes all the changes which a child will, when he/she is nearing adolescence is unable to get adjusted to the system of the modern schools and thus fails to match with the standards of academics.
Factors causing Phatik’s behaviour
1. Restriction has a great impact on his mind.
2. Lacks the much needed care, support and love of his mother.
3. His thoughts and ideas are not reinforced by his guardians.
4. Here also, he is considered as a burden and not seen as an important member of the family.
Significance of parenting during childhood
· Be responsive to children, both emotionally and intellectually
· Provide a warm and supportive atmosphere
· Children should be allowed to make mistakes. They have to be corrected in the right manner by inculcating the right values in them.
· Provide maximum opportunity to explore and investigate their environment.
· Don’t push your children too hard.
· Despite the rigors and demands of modern life, childhood should be a time for enjoyment and not viewed merely as a prelude to adulthood
· Encourage and reinforce the efforts of children.
ARTICLE BY: VIVEK M.V.
2ND YEAR, B.A. (PJOE)
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
HOMECOMING-Rabindranath Tagore [Adaptation]
Phatik was the most mischievous boy in the village. He would often create nuisance on the villagers and even his young brother, Makhan. One day, when he played a prank on his younger brother, his mother beat him up. At this moment, his brother Bhishamber arrived and he offered to take Phatik to Calcutta. Phatik’s mother readily agreed as she was worried that Phatik would someday drown his younger brother or break his head in a fight or run him into some danger or other. Phatik also rejoiced that he would be going to a bigger city and dreamt of having fun. He would ask his uncle Bhishamber about when they would start an leave for Calcutta. At this point, Phatik’s generosity towards his brother was unbounded. He gave up also his playthings like the fishing rod, his big kite and his marbles.
When they reach Calcutta, Phatik made the acquaintance of his aunt for the first time. She was not at all pleased with the unnecessary addition to the family. She found her three boys quite enough to manage without taking anyone else. Phatik was fourteen and at his age, he was not even a child or an adolescent. Then, he is at the unattractive, growing age. He grows out of his clothes with indecent haste, his voice grows hoarse and breaks and quavers; his face grows suddenly angular an unsightly. The lad at this age becomes painfully self-conscious and unduly shy when he talks with elderly people.
For a boy of fourteen, his own home is the only paradise. To live in a strange house with strange people is little short of torture. The aunt despised Phatik on every occasion. If she asks him to do anything for ever, he would be overjoyed and overdo it. She would call him stupid and tell him to get on with the lessons. The cramped atmosphere of neglect in his aunt’s house oppressed Phatik so much that he felt that he could hardly breathe. He wanted to go out in the open country and fill his lungs and breathe freely, but he was surrounded on all sides by Calcutta houses and walls. He would dream night after night of his village home and long to be back there. He remembered his mother and longed for her love and affection. Nobody could understand his feelings, but it preyed upon his mind continually.
There was no more backward boy in school than Phatik. He gaped and remained silent whenever the teacher asked him a question. He longed to go home and when he asked his uncle, the answer was, “Wait till the holidays come”. But, the holidays were a long time still to wait. One day, Phatik lost his lesson book. Even with the help of books he found it difficult indeed to prepare his lesson and now it was impossible. Day after day, the teacher would cane him unmercifully. His condition became so miserable that even his cousins were ashamed to own him. He went to his aunt at last and told her that he had lost his book. His aunt started cursing him and that night when he was on his way back from school; Phatik had a bad headache with a fit of shivering. He felt he might have an attack of malarial fever and that this would cause nuisance to his aunt. The next morning, Phatik was nowhere to be seen and all searches in the neighbourhood proved futile. Bishamber asked for help from the police and at the end of the day the police brought Phatik to the house placed in their arms. He was wet though from head to foot, muddy all over and his eyes flushed red with fever and his limbs all trembling. Bishamber carried him in his arms and took him inside but the aunt wanted him to be taken to his home. Phatik heard her words and told that he was on his way home but they dragged me again and again. Phatik’s fever rose very high and Bishamber brought in a doctor. Phatik opened his eyes and asked his uncle if the holiday had come and could he go home. Bishamber sat beside Phatik all night. Phatik became conscious in the morning for a short while and turned his eyes about the room as if expecting someone to come. But was all of disappointment, seeing this Bhishamber whispered to Phatik, “I have sent for your mother”. The day went by and the doctor said by the boy’s condition was critical. Later in the day Phatik’s mother burst into the room and moaned on seeing her son in a sorry state. His mother cried at “Phatik, my darling.” Phatik turned his head very slowly and without seeing anybody said, “Mother, the holidays have come.”
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