Tagore's birth anniversary

It was the personality of Tagore's stature that the Bengali people shaped their mental frame through. The unbelievable vitality of a human psyche that he possessed and let it work on the varied canvasses ultimately unveiled the eternal human mysteries.

His amazing creative-faculty swept through the multifaceted fields of novel, poetry, short story, music, essays, and state affairs.

His short stories are so vibrant and unique that they'll survive through the universal human psyche. His songs will be pouring forth the soothing spirit to the tired and confused minds as long as a single mind keeps on listening to it.

Today, recalling him is an act that will lay bare the path to conforming to the universal values attached to mankind. Today, we reaffirm our spirit of mind through recalling the poet we reaffirm our secular spirit and state of mind through recalling his works and spirit. We reassess and refresh our stand on the values of a harmonious co-existence, friendship and humanity. We sing of our Bengali-self through remembering Tagore.

Although Tagore wrote mostly in Bangla, his works, it is said, have an appeal, which strikes a chord in the minds of the speakers of other languages. In other words, he does belong not only to Bangla literature but also to world literature. His vision is inclusive in the sense that it embraces both eastern and western values .He was an exponent of ''Bengal Renaissance'', elitist though it was, confined within the circle of those literate city-dwellers of Calcutta. The fact remains that he gave a huge boost to Bangla language and literature. However, now it is imperative that we should reassess his works from the perspectives of the recent linguistic and literary theories. Again, we should also think about those illiterate masses that lack the basic education to appreciate the literary outpourings of Tagore. We will do a great disservice to his legacy if we fail to address these issues.

Zabed Wali, On e-mail