Proper teaching stokes curiosity - Tagore

It feels right to draw inspiration, from an Indian whose contribution to literature, music and Indian art is beyond parallel - Rabindranath Tagore [1861 – 1941]. Known as Gurudev, this ‘Bard of Bengal’ was a poet, musician and artist. The first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. His compositions are the national anthems of two nations - India and Bangladesh and the inspiration for the third - Sri Lanka.

The youngest of thirteen children, he was home tutored by his brother -be it swimming, trekking, gymnastics, judo or wrestling. He learned drawing, anatomy, geography, history, literature, mathematics, Sanskrit, and English as well.

Tagore disliked formal education. He travelled widely with his father and read biographies, astronomy, modern science, and Sanskrit. He was greatly influenced by the poetry of Kālidāsa and the melodious Gurbani and Nanakbani sung at Golden Temple.

Tagore wrote poetry at 8. At 16, he released his first poems under the name Bhānusiṃha ("Sun Lion”). He debuted in the short-story genre in bengali with "Bhikharini" ("The Beggar Woman”) published under his real name. After returning from England without a degree, Tagore regularly published poems, stories, and novels.

Known mostly for his poetry, Tagore wrote novels, essays, short stories, travelogues, dramas, and thousands of songs which covered political and personal topics. They were drawn from life in the villages, where he explored local sentiments and emotions with sensitivity and depth. He reflected on his surroundings and on modern ideas. His works are frequently noted for their rhythmic, optimistic, and lyrical nature. Tagore was a prolific composer with around 2,230 songs to his credit. His songs are known as Rabindra Sangit.

Gitanjali , Gora and Ghare-Baire and the Manasi poems are his best-known works. Internationally, Gitanjali is Tagore's best-known collection of poetry, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1913. Tagore was the second non-European to win the Prize.

Tagore founded Santiniketan an ashram and an experimental school and Visva- Bharati University.

He was awarded a knighthood by King George V, but Tagore renounced it after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

Surrounded by several painters Rabindranath had always wanted to paint. Writing and music, playwriting and acting came to him naturally and without training. He tried repeatedly to master painting, but it eluded him.

At sixty, Tagore took up drawing and painting. Successful exhibitions of his many works were held in Paris and throughout Europe. He was likely red-green colour blind, resulting in works that exhibited strange colour schemes and off-beat aesthetics. Tagore was influenced by numerous styles and also had an artist's eye for his own handwriting, often embellishing his manuscripts with simple artistic patterns. Tagore modernised Bengali art by disapproving of rigid classical forms.

He has left behind a treasure that comprises of paintings, sketches, doodles, hundreds of texts, and about two thousand songs. Bengali culture is filled with his legacy - from language and arts to history and politics.

India's National Gallery of Modern Art lists 102 works by Tagore in its collections.

There are eight Tagore museums. Three in India and five in Bangladesh.

He epitomises the proverb ‘it is never too late’. Doesn’t Tagore inspire and motivate all of us to do whatever we yearn to, no matter what our age?