Staff Reporter :The 155th birth anniversary of Poet Rabindranath Tagore will be observed today across the country in a befitting manner. On the 25th Baishakh in 1268 BS, Rabindranath Tagore was born at Jorashako in Calcutta (now Kolkata). The government, non-government and different socio-cultural organistions have chalked out various programmes, including discussion meetings, cultural functions and Rabindra fairs. President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina have issued separate messages on the occasion.The inaugural ceremony of the national-level programme will be held at Osmani Memorial Auditorium in the city at 3pm today.President Abdul Hamid will attend the inaugural function as the chief guest, while Cultural Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Noor will preside at the programme. A three-day programme will begin at Rabindra Complex in Fultala of Khulna in the afternoon. Prime Minister’s Political Adviser HT Imam will attend the inaugural function at 4-30 pm. The Kushtia district administration will hold a function at Shilaidah. Similar programme has been taken at Patishar by Naogaon district administration. Bangladesh Television (BTV), Bangladesh Betar and private television channels will air different programmes marking Tagore’s birth anniversary. The five-day ’27th Jatiya Rabindrasangeet Utsab’ ends today in the Shawkat Osman Memorial Auditorium of Central Public Library in the city.Bangladesh Rabindrasangeet Shilpi Sangstha (BRSS) organised the programme to spread Rabindra Sangeet. Singer Papia Sarwar is scheduled to receive her honorary award on the occasion today. Tagore received Nobel Prize in literature in 1913.His poems and songs had inspired the nation in its most difficult years and the country adopted one of his songs “Amar Sonar Bangla” as its National Anthem.At the request of the eminent historian Dr Romesh Chandra Majumdar, who was the Vice-Chancellor of Dhaka University then, Tagore visited Dhaka in 1926. The idyllic beauty of the university set in what was then a rural backdrop so excited the poet that he composed some of his memorable poems and songs, here. “The red road that leaves the village” was one such poem. Although Tagore was born in Kolkata, much of his creative works were done in Shilaidaha, which is now in Kushtia. The local mystic Lalon Fakir about whom he had heard a lot from the local postman, Gagon Harkara, also influenced him, profoundly.Tagore borrowed the tune of “Sonar Bangla” from one of Gagon’s frequently sung songs. Writing about Tagore’s contributions another Bengali Nobel laureate, Amartya Sen, said, “It is natural that Rabindranath would be considered as one of the greatest icons of Bengalis. His poetry as well as his novels, short stories, and essays are very widely read, and the songs he composed reverberate around the eastern part of India. Born in the late 19th century, Tagore grew up at a time of great political and religious turmoil which is reflected in his works. He visualized a country: Into that heaven of freedom/my Father, let my country awake.In his later years, Tagore tried his hand at painting. It was largely inspired by Irish woodwork and some of it was displayed in Paris, London and New York during his lifetime. Of his painting, Tagore said, “I’m no good at it but like a father who loves his crippled child the most, my love for it is the greatest.”The first non-Westerner to get the Nobel Prize, Tagore had a great influence across the world.Japan’s first Nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata wrote that he treasured memories from his school days of “this sage-like poet.” Anna Akhmatova, one of Tagore’s few later-day admirers (who translated his poems into Russian in the mid-1960s), talks of “that mighty flow of poetry which takes its strength from mysticism as from the Ganges, and is called Rabindranath Tagore.”By his contemporaries in India, Tagore was considered as Gurudev.On learning his death news, Jawaharlal Nehru, then incarcerated in a British jail in India, wrote in his prison diary on August 7, 1941 that coming into close contact with Tagore was good for him.
