The birth anniversary of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore (7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) in 2021 was observed at homes and on social media due the novel coronavirus mandated lockdown. This time no stage performances and singing programmes were held.
He was a versatile personality as 'a polymath, poet, musician, artist and ayurveda-researcher' all rolled into one. It was in 1913 that he became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature for his poetic work Gitanjali is viewed as spiritual, magical and mercurial poetry.
Tagore's extraordinary work comprises of a large array of paintings, sketches, doodles, texts and songs. He subscribed for naturalistic philosophy of education and founded Visva-Bharati University to carry on his legacy.
He also started an experimental school at Shantiniketan for imparting education to children on Upanishadic ideals in natural surroundings.
I remember during teacher training in Lok Jumbish project we used to hold discussion Tagore's story "The Parrot's Training" which depicted the tale of a caged bird who was forcibly fed the textbook pages making it to die which is satire on the system of education that emphasizes rote learning.
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