A Punjabi politician’s ode to Tagore
November 15th, 2011 - 1:39 pm ICT by IANS
New Delhi, Nov 15 (IANS) Punjab and Rabindranath Tagore have little in common, but Kanwar Deep Singh, an MP from the state, has merged the two by compiling two calendars - one depicting the Nobel laureate’s paintings and another a visual interpretation of his art by contemporary artists.
“I compiled a complete calendar of Tagore’s paintings which I collected from the archives to mark his 150th birth anniversary…and followed it up with a second one featuring paintings by artists which interpreted Tagore,” Singh told IANS.
The MP sent the Tagore calendars to union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, the head of the apex committee constituted to oversee the poet’s 150 anniversary celebrations.
“The finance minister said he was surprised that a Punjabi took it upon himself to pay tribute to Tagore,” said Singh.
“But Bengal and Punjab are both led by their hearts… We have suffered during the struggle for independence,” said Singh, who was in the news recently when officials of his company were caught carrying a huge amount of cash to Assam early this year.
“I have been inspired by Rabindranath Tagore since I read his works as a boy. I had read an English version of one of his poems about god that I remembered. It led me to Tagore later,” he said.
The poem was about Tagore’s call to people to leave the four walls of the temple and seek god among the masses, the MP said.
“Leave this chanting and singing and telling of beads; whom dost thou worship in this lonely dark corner of a temple with doors all shut…Open thine eyes and see thy god is not before thee…,” the MP reminisced.
Tagore has also found a resonance in Singh’s current political ideology. “I am a Trinamool Congress MP and my leader Mamata Banerjee, is a Bengali from Kolkata. It has brought me close to Bengal… and the Bengali culture,” he said.
Singh, who was born in a village in Punjab, says “he has literature and poetry in his soul”.
“I have been influenced by Jeffrey Archer’s book and the autobiography of Yogananda Paramhansa. I am self-taught,” the MP, who is also the chairman of the Alchemist Group, said.
Singh is co-sponsoring the Alchemist Hay Literature Festival in Kerala Nov 17-19.
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- Special 'Gitanjali' to mark Tagore's 150th birth anniversary - Feb 04, 2012
- For Bengalis, Tagore still the man for all seasons - May 07, 2011
- Tagore's texts made into pictorial editions (With Images) - May 29, 2012
- Rich tributes to Tagore on 71st death anniversary - Aug 08, 2011
- Once criticised, painter Tagore now aesthetic icon (With Images) - May 03, 2011
- Spirituality can never be uprooted from India: American guru - Jan 01, 2012
- Life of Rabindranath Tagore at a glance - May 08, 2011
- Eight Bangladeshi artists interpret Tagore on canvas - May 16, 2011
- Revered but not read, is Tagore reserve of the purist? - May 10, 2011
- India-Bangladesh project to dramatise Tagore's prose, poems - Apr 08, 2011
- Making style statement with Tagore kitsch - May 07, 2010
- More Tagore works should be translated in Hindi: Sharmila Tagore - Jul 17, 2010
- Tagore anthology in Polish released - Apr 10, 2011
- West Bengal celebrates Tagore's 150th birth anniversary - May 09, 2011
Tags: anniversary celebrations, apex, assam, banerjee, bengal, bengali culture, birth anniversary, contemporary artists, deep singh, four walls, kolkata, nobel laureate, open thine eyes, political ideology, pranab mukherjee, punjab, rabindranath tagore, trinamool congress, union finance minister, visual interpretation