September 2019

Dear Friends,

Rabindranath Tagore ( 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941)also known as Gurudev,was a polymath, poet, musician, and artist. He reshaped Bengali literature and music, as well as Indian art with Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Author of the "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse" of Gitanjali, he became in 1913 the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Tagore's poetic songs were viewed as a spiritual and mercurial; however, his "elegant prose and magical poetry" remain largely unknown outside Bengal. He is sometimes referred to as "the Bard of Bengal".

His legacy also endures in the institution he founded, Visva-Bharati University.  His compositions were chosen by two nations as national anthems: India's Jana Gana Mana and Bangladesh's Amar Sonar Bangla. The Sri Lankan national anthem was inspired by his work.In this issue, we have given some of his quotable quotes.