Thaindian News

Kolkata, May 8 (IANS) West Bengal Saturday kicked off the year-long celebrations of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s 150th birth anniversary with two processions through busy streets of central and south Kolkata.
The two processions taken out by Tagore fans later converged at the Rabindra Sadan, a cultural complex named after the poet.

In colourful processions, fans could be seen reciting poems, singing songs and enacting parts of plays written by the bard, who holds the unique distinction of having composed the national anthems of two sovereign nations India and Bangladesh.

Born in 1861, Tagore was the first Asian to win the Nobel prize in 1913 for his book of poems Gitanjali.

It was Tagore fever in the streets of Kolkata as people from all walks of life and ages joined the processions organised to pay tributes to the writer - virtually unparalleled in world literature in the richness, vastness and diversity of his oeuvre.

“Today we have gathered in the streets to show respect to the legacy and the literary heritage that the people of Bengal have inherited from Tagore,” said Anunay Chattopadhyay, an official of Rabindra Janmo Sardho Satobarsho Udjapon Samiti (Committee for celebrating the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath), one of the main organisers of the march.

One of the processions started from south city’s Hazra More, with girls from schools and colleges draped in elegant sarees and wearing floral bands round their waist and on heads, dancing to Tagore songs.

The participants held placards with lines from Tagore’s poems and songs on varied emotions and topics written on them.

Tableaux containing portraits of the poet and placards carrying excerpts from his compositions against war were also on display.

“I have been a fan of Rabindranath since the day I gained my senses. Rabindranath is a way of life,” said actor Sabyasachi Chakroborty, who joined the procession.

The other procession, equally colourful, started from the Metro channel.

Tagore enriched Bengali culture and literature as a poet, novelist, musician, and playwright from the second half of the 19th century to the first half of the 20th century, and is still a household name in this part of the world with the popularity of his works yet undiminished.