Tagore's birth anniversary, but its hardly a reason for Mumbai to celebrate

By Ranjib Mazumdar / DNA

India’s first Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s 150th birth anniversary is being celebrated today, as per the Bengali calendar. Even as cultural bodies in quite a few other cities are observing his birthday, there is hardly any event in Mumbai to mark the occasion.

Theatre person Dolly Thakore says, “It’s quite sad nothing much is happening in Mumbai on Tagore’s birthday. I guess, as far as Mumbai is concerned, it has too much on its platter — be it Kasab or the MNS. But sadly, we haven’t spent time remembering him.”

Theatre person Alyque Padamsee agrees. He says, “Mumbai is mad about Shakespeare but not Tagore. This is a great pity because Tagore was one of our best poets and playwrights. Wake up, Mumbai.”

Poetess Arundhathi Subramanium says, “Not just Tagore’s birthday, but many other moments go unobserved in Mumbai. We are slowly losing the ability to contextualise our cultural figures.”

Singer Kavita Krishnamurthy, who has a strong base in Rabindra Sangeet, also known as Tagore songs, says, “It’s quite heartbreaking to see that so many people still don’t know what Rabindra Sangeet is. Since I have grown up on the music of Tagore, I know the sheer brilliance of it.Sadly, so many Indians are unaware of it. It’s time for everybody, not just Bengalis, to be aware of the man who made us so proud.”

Arundhati too agrees that there are many ways to celebrate and remember. “Setting up some festivity hypothetically is not the only way to celebrate Tagore’s birthday. Reciting poetry in an auditorium is an easy, rhapsodic response to our cultural history,” she ends.