Tagore’s words that will take you to Bengal

Rabindranath Tagore straddled the world with his words. And they continue to resonate a century after he wrote them. The smell of a specific seasonal blossom, the changing colours of the trees in his own backyard and minute geographical details were rendered universal through his humanist philosophy. It transcended borders, languages and made him the true Biswakabi or poet of the world.

My knowledge of Tagore barely skims the surface of the staggering body of his work and to truly know and understand his vision and philosophy is a subject that demands nearly a lifetime of study. However, he remains an inheritance for most Bengalis and those who grew up in Kolkata . These are songs, letters, books and poetry, half-remembered at times, carrying with them memories, images, sights, sounds and smells—

Of early morning assemblies at school Of spring Of Durga Puja playlists Of post-modern interpretations by college rockstars Of petrichor Of boat rides on the River Hooghly Of young love Of tinny recordings at traffic signals Of Satyajit Ray Of dinner parties with parents Of Santiniketan winters

Tagore was the poet who took his home to the world and the world back home. We recreate a brief journey through Bengal in a poem, a song, a collection of letters and a novel.

Sahaj Path: The story of a little river

Beautifully simple and recommended reading for children across Bengal, this is a poem that chronicles a little river. The Kopai in Birbhum district is a small tributary by all standards, and one that Tagore often walked by during his years at Shantiniketan. As the seasons pass, it changes its character as it swells from a trickle to a heaving body of water straining against its banks. The descriptions are rooted in a particular stretch of the river fringed by kash flowers, mango and palm trees. The mynahs chirp by day and while the howling jackals provide a soundtrack for the night. The Kopai is a fount of life for the surrounding villages—men, women and children fish, wash, bathe and play in its waters—a little microcosm of the life-nurturing rivers across time and geographies.

An anthem for all of Bengal

Rooted in the alluvial soil, seeped in the fragrance of its  blossoms, watered by big and small rivers, and shaped by the passage of seasons, this song is Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore's paean to Bengal. It is apt that the song draws its melodic origins from a song by the Bauls who were the travelling minstrels celebrating a syncretic way of life. "Amar Sonar Bangla" rises beyond cultural, religious, political differences as well as borders. It was originally written in 1905 during the first Partition of Bengal to bridge the communal divide and a rallying cry to reinforce unity across its people. The song, which was adopted as the Bangladesh national anthem during the 1971 Liberation War, remains an ode to the land with lines like "My golden Bengal / My Bengal of gold, I love you / Forever your skies, your air set my heart in tune / as if it were a flute"

In it, Bengal is a nurturing mother who does not differentiate between her children. This song is a beautiful vision of all-encompassing harmony and love.

Glimpses of Bengal

This collection of letters is, in Tagore's own words, from "the most productive period in his life" and captures the musings of a young poet as he travels across the villages of Bengal. And like all of his works, they resonate beyond the place and the context. In a letter written in October 1885, he describes a magnificent view of the sea from the little village of Bandora (now in Bangladesh) —

"The unsheltered sea heaves and heaves and blanches into foam. It sets me thinking of some tied-up monster straining at its bonds, in front of whose gaping jaws we build our homes on the shore and watch it lashing its tail. What immense strength, with waves swelling like the muscles of a giant!"

In another instance, we are transported to Shilaidaha where the Tagore family had a country estate. Here he describes a vast sandbank skirting the Padma river — "A vast expanse of sand stretches away out of sight on every side, with here and there a streak, as of water, running across, though sometimes what gleams like water is only sand. Not a village, not a human being, not a tree, not a blade of grass—the only breaks in the monotonous whiteness are gaping cracks which in places show the layer of moist, black clay underneath."

Rivers, forests, beels (marshes), spring, summer, autumn, winter unfold through Tagore's vivid imagination. These small and obscure villages which are often hard to pinpoint on a map are rendered unforgettable in these letters written by a poet. Read Glimpses of Bengal here

The Home and the World

Set in early 20th-century Bengal, Ghare Baire (translated as The Home and the World) is a novel that takes a look at the history of Bengal, the Indian Nationalist Movement and the civilizational clash between the East and the West. Rooted in the very specific context of a zamindari estate in rural Bengal, the story examines family dynamics and gender politics through the changing relationship between three pivotal characters—Nikhilesh, Sandip and Bimala. Tagore uses Bengal as the lens to examine the political turbulence unravelling across pre-Partition India. Extremely modern in its approach and on point with contemporary debates, the novel found new resonance in Satyajit Ray's 1984 adaptation. Watch the film here