I am currently reading The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity by Nobel Prize winning Economist Dr. Amartya Sen. In there, a chapter is dedicated to Rabindranath Tagore, one of India’s foremost thinkers.  I have always wanted to know more about Tagore – I grew up in Kolkata in the West Bengal state of India where Tagore, his writings, songs, and music is strongly entrenched in the place’s culture. Not coming from a traditional Bengali family, I never had a chance to read or listen to Tagore’s literature much. I was able to lay hands, though, on some of his translated works. But being a teenager and not much fascinated by poetic compositions, I ignored the stalwart. But Dr. Sen has definitely rekindled my curiosity to explore Tagore’s work. Here is a piece from his Nobel prize winning book, Gitanjali:

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.