Tagore at 150 – the Peter Pan of Bengali culture?

Despite the official Tagore anniversary celebrations which began in Santiniketan, it’s a shame that #tagore150 never became a trending topic on twitter (he’s got “Bustin Jieber” to compete with after all) but surely it’s a measure of the enduring love for the man shared by Bengali’s the world over that even on the newest mode of expressions Tagore fans try to share their love for him and his works.

But in one of those curious coincidences it appears that today is also the 150 year anniversary of the birth of J.M. Barrie — the creater of Peter Pan. I wonder if the two men ever met? Tagore was a famous traveller and meeter (sic) of people so it’s not beyond the realms of imagination, particularly two such vivid ones.

“The most useless are those who never change through the years.” –J.M. Barrie

“Not hammer strokes, but dance of the water, sings the pebbles into perfection.” –Rabindranath Tagore

The Kingdom of Cards, by Rabindranath Tagore

Back on the Tagore podcast trail but slightly out of sequence — in that this the fifth podcast in the series is actually the sixth story from the collection — but I don’t think he’d mind.

The story is about a young prince who leaves his mother to seek fame and fortune and what occurs when he and his friends wash up on a strange island.

The Kolkatta (Calcutta) raised Tagore wrote a lot of these stories when he was managing the family estates in what is now Bangladesh.

The Home-coming, by Rabindranath Tagore

The fourth podcast of the english translation of an early collection of Tagore short stories is about a troublesome youth and his relationships with his family and the agonies of adolescence.

Once there was a King, by Rabindranath Tagore

The third Tagore short story in this series is the tale of the storyteller’s recollection of a rainy day in Kolkata when as a seven year old child he persuades his grandmother to tell him a story.

The Victory, by Rabindranath Tagore

The second story in this series of short stories is the tale of a royal poet and the battle he must fight for the affections of the court.

According to one source (unverified) the english version of The Victory was written by Tagore himself.