Gitanjali...

Git- Means Song, and Anjali -Means offerings, Thus Gitanjali means song offerings...

Happen to read this last week, having taken the same from Mavalipuram, EMS library....

"The progress of our soul is like a perfect poem,
It has an infinite idea which once realised makes all movements full of meaning and joy.
But if we detach its movements from the ultimate idea, if we do not see the infinite rest and only see the infinite motions,
then existance appears to us a monstrous evil, impetuously rushing towards an unending aimlessness"

Githanjali, Tagores Nobel winning masterpiece was first published in 1912. These immensely touching verses were written in Bengali in 1910, after he lost his father, wife, second daughter and younger son. Later he translated these verses when he set sail for England a third time. He showed the translations to William Rothenstein, who showed it to William Butler Yeats, who wrote the Introduction for the book.

Renowned for its lyrical beauty and spiritua poignancy, Githanjali is a classic in its own right, which won Tagore the Noble prize for literature in 1913.

Being in constant touch with rural like, he was also in touch with the nature. He founded the Visva Bharati University at Shantiniketan.

A renissance icon, Tagore left behind a huge legacy of work. These run into twenty-nine volumes. He died in calcutta in August 1941.

Having studied bits and parts of it in school, my favourate is 11th and 77ths part which says:

Thou art the Brother amongst my brothers, but I heed them not, I divide not my earnings with them, thus sharing my all with thee....


Gitanjali also reminds me of the model Gitanjali Nagpal - who very ambitious, left her home town, and was finally found on the streets in Delhi, without anything.......