Rabindranath Tagore, the literary scholar, polymath, poet, musician and artist, is best known for writing the national anthem of two nations, India and Bangladesh, and the Sri Lankan anthem is inspired by his work, but the scholar has many more achievements to his name and is remembered fondly around the world. Born Robindronath Thakur, on 7 May 1861, the writer also went by his pen name Bhanu Singha Thakur and is best known for reshaping Bengali Bengali literature and music, and also Indian art. May 7 is celebrated as Rabindranath Tagore Jayanti, Rabindranath Tagore’s birth anniversary and this year is the 160th year since the poet’s birth. In 1913, the author of the well-known literary work, Gitanjali, became the first Asian Nobel laureate and also the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Also referred to as the Bard of Bengal, a majority of Tagore’s poetic works is largely unknown outside Bengal.
Interestingly, Tagore also has a dinosaur named after him. Last year IFS officer Parveen Kaswan shared a post on October 22 on Twitter, “Do you know Rabindranath Tagore has a dinosaur named after him?” wrote Kaswan. The animal, which once walked through India, was an “18 metres long and 7 tonned dinosaur. It was the first complete mounted dinosaur skeleton discovered in 1960s,” Kaswan wrote. He then revealed that the name is Barapasaurus Tagorei.
Do you know #Rabindranath Tagore has a dinosaur named after him.
— Parveen Kaswan, IFS (@ParveenKaswan) October 22, 2019
Barapasaurus #tagorei was a 18 metre long & 7 tonned #dinosaur which walked through #India once. It was the first complete mounted dinosaur skeleton discovered in 1960s in Adilabad district of #India.
Tagore, also known as Gurudev, wrote many poems and works about suffering, society, and having grown up in times of the plague and smallpox (for which a vaccine hadn’t been made yet), Tagore knew about life during a pandemic, and in current Covid times, some of his poems and works are like holding up a mirror to the current scenario.
Here are some interesting quotes - romantic, melancholy, deep - by the Bard of Bengal.
*“I have spent a fortune traveling to distant shores and looked at lofty mountains and boundless oceans, and yet I haven’t found time to take a few steps from my house to look at a single dew drop on a single blade of grass.”
*“The small wisdom is like water in a glass: clear, transparent, pure.
The great wisdom is like the water in the sea: dark, mysterious, impenetrable.”
*“If I can’t make it through one door, I’ll go through another door- or I’ll make a door. Something terrific will come no matter how dark the present.”
*“We read the world wrong and say that it deceives us.”
*“Love is an endless mystery, because there is no reasonable cause that could explain it.”
*“A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it.”
*“Death is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.”
*“Let your life lightly dance on the edges of time like dew on the tip of a leaf.”
*“By plucking her petals you do not gather the beauty of the flower.”
*“Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark.”
