Rabindranath Tagore Death Anniversary: Lesser-known facts about 'Bard of Bengal'

-

Rabindranath Tagore, a beacon of Bengali literature, was a great scholar, poet, novelist, musician, playwright and artist. Today, 7 August, marks the 81st death anniversary of the person who made the nation proud by becoming the first Indian to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. He bagged the prestigious award in 1913 for the English translation of his poetry collection, ‘Gitanjali’, meaning 'Song Offerings'. Tagore, son of Debendranath Tagore and Sarada Devi was born at Calcutta’s Jorasanko on 7 May 1861. He went to England at the age of 17 to study at a public school in East Sussex. He also enrolled as a law student at the University College London. But soon, he left his college and moved back to India in 1880 to solely dedicate himself to Bengali literature.

Among his numerous creations, the national anthems of both India and Bangladesh come at the top of the list. Some of his other note-worthy works are Gora, Gitabitan, Sanchayita, Ghare Baire and more. Apart from his great contribution to Bengali literature, he played a pivotal role in modernising Indian art and culture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The noted poet breathed his last on 7 August 1941.

Today, on his 81st death anniversary, let’s take a look at some lesser-known facts about the Bard of Bengal:

1. Rabindranath Tagore wrote his first poem when he was just eight. However, his first substantial poem was released in 1877 under the pseudonym 'Bhanusinha'.
2. Tagore was the one who introduced the ‘short story’ genre to Bengali literature. In 1877, he penned his first short story named ‘Bhikharini’ (The Beggar Woman) at the tender age of 16.
3. In 1883, Rabindranath Tagore tied the knot with Mrinalini Devi who was then just 10 years old. Two of their five kids died in their childhood. Tagore shared a good bonding with his elder brother Jyotirindranath Tagore’s wife, Kadambini Devi who had a powerful influence on his writings.
4. He was conferred with the Knighthood by King George V in 1915 but renounced it after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919.
5. As Rabindranath Tagore was against typical classroom schooling, he founded Visva-Bharati university in 1918, which allowed the students to learn freely in the lap of nature.
6. Rabindranath Tagore, who was influenced by Mahatma Gandhi, also played a big role in India’s freedom struggle.
7. He met Albert Einstein four times and they had great respect for each other. In one of his writings, Tagore described the famous scientist, “There was nothing stiff about him - there was no intellectual aloofness. He seemed to me a man who valued human relationships and he showed me a real interest and understanding.”



from Firstpost India Latest News https://ift.tt/mLOyT67
FP Trending

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Both COVID-19 vaccine doses needed for good protection against B16172 variant

-
It’s been a concerning few weeks in the UK, with the B16172 variant first taking hold and then spreading to become dominant. This more infectious form of the virus, initially identified in India, is what we’re now going to have to live with – unless it is out-competed by another variant in the future. Worryingly, experts had predicted that B16172 might be able to escape some of the effects of vaccines, which if true would threaten to derail the UK’s plans to finish lifting restrictions from the end of June. However, Public Health England (PHE) has looked at the ability of various variants to evade immunity and says that the UK’s vaccines remain effective against the variants circulating, including B16172. On the surface, this looks like good news. But delve a bit deeper, and things get more complicated, says Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia. PHE’s research found a little drop-off in protection against B16172 among people who were fully vaccinated.
Read more

New coronavirus variant emerge in India: How should our COVID response change?

-
Image
After genome sequencing of over 10,000 COVID-19 cases in India, researchers have discovered a new variant with two new mutations which may be better at evading the immune system. In 15-20 percent of samples from the Indian state of Maharashtra (the state accounting for 62 percent of cases in the country) a new, double mutation in key areas of the virus has been detected. These are now known as the E484Q and L452R mutations. What makes the variant different? Both these mutations are concerning because they are located in a key portion of the virus – the spike protein – that it uses to penetrate human cells. Spike proteins attach via a “receptor binding domain”, meaning the virus can attach to receptors in our cells. These new mutations include changes to the spike protein that make it a “better fit” for human cells. This means the virus can gain entry more easily and multiply faster. Given what we have seen with other similar mutations , it might also make it harder for our immu
Read more

Aditya L1 Mission: Spacecraft is nearing its final phase, says ISRO chief

-
Aditya L1 spacecraft is nearing its final phase, and manoeuvres to enter the L1 point are expected to be completed by January 7, 2024, according to ISRO Chairman S Somanath. “Aditya is on the way. I think it has reached almost its final phase,” the ISRO chief told PTI on the sidelines of an event organised at VSSC to commemorate the 60th year of the First Sounding Rocket Launch. Aditya L1, India’s first space-based mission to study the Sun, was successfully launched on September 2 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota. The spacecraft, after travelling about 1.5 million km from Earth over 125 days, is expected to be placed in a Halo orbit around the Lagrangian point L1, considered closest to the Sun. He said that the last preparations for the spacecraft’s entry into the L1 point are currently underway incrementally.”Possibly by January 7th, the final manoeuvres will be done for entering into the L1 point,” Somanath added. Among other tasks, it will capture and tr
Read more