Recollections
I was never a poet. A sad fact of my life. Poetry requires passion, and I never had no passion for nothin'. sad as it may sound, it has never stopped me from appreciating someone else's work. And to this 'gift', I am eternally thankful to that fateful 'roll of the dice' that created me.
For a whole 8 years (mid and high school), once a week, I would mumble/say/repeat the words that echoed thru the school PA system. The words which conveyed only one thing - If you don't utter them, you are taken to the vice-princi(pal) for a talk. I never once cared to listen, never once cared to see why people appreciated them. I just did what I had to.
And then a couple of years back, I read the same words again. But this time, it wasn't a prayer. I read it for fun, while browsing. That was the first time I actually bothered to give it a chance. What I understood from it might have been only an iota of what the poet intended, yet it was thought provoking. It led me to question many things I did. It led me to some choices that may not have been the best for my career; but I still love the fact that I made them. It led me to break the mould (the unintended pun would make even Tagore proud for it visual contrast. lol).
It is one thing to appreciate the Masters because everyone does so, and another thing to realise that they are truly so.
As for Tagore, I am glad he is one of those greats (perhaps the only one) that I realised.
What more can I say, except relish it.
*****
Where The Mind is Without Fear
by Rabindranath Tagore
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake
For a whole 8 years (mid and high school), once a week, I would mumble/say/repeat the words that echoed thru the school PA system. The words which conveyed only one thing - If you don't utter them, you are taken to the vice-princi(pal) for a talk. I never once cared to listen, never once cared to see why people appreciated them. I just did what I had to.
And then a couple of years back, I read the same words again. But this time, it wasn't a prayer. I read it for fun, while browsing. That was the first time I actually bothered to give it a chance. What I understood from it might have been only an iota of what the poet intended, yet it was thought provoking. It led me to question many things I did. It led me to some choices that may not have been the best for my career; but I still love the fact that I made them. It led me to break the mould (the unintended pun would make even Tagore proud for it visual contrast. lol).
It is one thing to appreciate the Masters because everyone does so, and another thing to realise that they are truly so.
As for Tagore, I am glad he is one of those greats (perhaps the only one) that I realised.
What more can I say, except relish it.
*****
Where The Mind is Without Fear
by Rabindranath Tagore
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake
posted by karthik durvasula | 3:29 PM
1 Comments:
"I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something he will die for ,
he isn't fit to live "
How are you ?
- ranjani
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