A/N: Before I start writing this book I would like to inform you that I've nothing against anyone! I've exaggerated in most of the parts and I'm writing it solely for the purpose of entertainment. It's not a hate rant. And whatever I'm writing is the result of what I've observed over the years and it how I think about certain situations. Most of you might not even agree with my opinions and I perfectly understand that. I do not intent to hurt the sentiments of anyone, but if I have done so, it wasn't intentional and I apologise in advance.
Before you start reading I suggest that you google Rabindranath Tagore, everything I mentioned about him is based on oral accounts which might not be entirely true and don't depend on that information if you want to know more about him.
I believe that Rabindranath Tagore was a legend and his works are legendary.
Rabindrasangeet is the term used to represent the songs that have been composed by Tagore.
The Tagore Obsession
The obsession of Benagali people with Tagore is no less as compared to the obsession of vampires, boybands and a certain feminine looking popstar in the west in terms of popularity. His fandom has survived even after 150 years and teenage fangirls didn’t exist back then.
For those who don’t know about Tagore, he was a legend for the people of Bengal and he still is. Rabindranath Tagore (Thakur in Bengali) was the first Indian to receive the Nobel Prize. He won it for his contribution in literature, his work that got him the award was ‘Gitanjali’ a collection of his compositions in Bengali which he translated to English and his work didn’t loose it’s magic with the translation. He is also the composer of our national anthem ‘Jana gana mana’.
Every child who is a decedent of Bengali parents, no matter where they reside has been spoon-fed the above information by their parents more than n times in their life! If by chance you are a Bengali and it hasn’t happened to you then consider yourself rare.
It is one of the key factors for the survival of his fandom.
Like any other parents, our parents too want us to be the best all rounder kid in the history of kidsdom! And when the parents get competitive, all hell breaks loose on the child! Well the amount of torture the kid has to go through is slightly affected by the area they are staying in.
I’ve stayed in two different places in West Bengal and both of them are completely different from each other in almost all aspects! I spent my childhood in a Town called Siliguri. Those of you staying in West Bengal must have herd of this place and it is quite popular among tourists. If you plan to visit the hill stations in Sikkim or you are planning to go to Darjeeling or the nearby local tourist destinations or picnic spots, you’ll have to go there via Siliguri. Apart from that it also happens to be one of those Towns where “everyone knows everyone” and the whenever the moms meet they exaggerate about their children! They enroll their children in every sport and talent club mankind has ever herd of. What does this have to do with Tagore? Well, I’m slowly getting there. But before I go there, I want to explain the contrast of these two places. And it is very much relevant to the topic. So yeah let’s get back to moms exaggerating about their oh-so-perfect children.
Well if you ever listen to the moms talk about their children, it will sound something like this: “You know my child is doing so bad in school nowadays! I can’t believe he got only 92% in his finals, the daughter of Mrs Sen got 95% can you believe it? She even missed school that day and she didn’t even have hundreds of tutors for every subject. But you know my younger daughter has started taking dancing, singing and sports lessons and she’s five, I should have enrolled her when she was younger. Perhaps, enrolling her when was only two days old would have been best. I wished that she will start her musical career learning rabindrasangeet like her older brother but all she does is sing cartoon tunes, nursery rhymes and those tacky bollywood and English songs! You tell me what will I do with her? How can she be a great musician if she doesn’t learn rabindrasangeet?And on top of that she isn’t even focusing on studies you know? She came second on her kinder-garden finals? She only got 99.8% and girl who topped only got 99.9%! Kids these days don’t want to study, you tell me if they don’t score 510% how are going to get a job?” Well, yeah I’ve exaggerated about the whole thing a bit too much but you get the point? Also someone needs to shed light on the superkids issue, but I’ll rant about it in another chapter.
And now let’s shift to Kolkata, the best thing about this city is that “nobody cares” about who you are and what you are doing. Yeah the moms here talk too but the life here is fast paced and nobody talks that much. Everyone’s busy getting ahead in their own life. But the obsession of Tagore fever has been taken up to another notch in this city. And the credits for this goes to our dear chief minister Miss B (I’m not going to use her full name).
We calcuttans have to listen to rabindrasangeet daily, willingly or unwillingly. The reason? I don’t really know, but a certain important person, whose decision’s matter one day might have thought that playing rabindrasangeet in the traffic signal is a better idea than then playing traffic instructions about road safety. Okay, the instructions and the music that followed with it was kind of annoying but that was reasonable! And yeah you read it right about the traffic signal.
Almost every parent here has enrolled their child in music classes at-least once. Some of the kids did stick to it, and some children didn’t (like me, for example). Some of them even went ahead and pursued a career in music and they were really successful. They have also created their own music. But when wild relatives suddenly appear in your house, for some reason they want to listen to your melodious nightingale like voice. You offer to perform your original piece and get their feedback, but you know it’s of no use. Whatever original masterpiece you perform will be dismissed as western shit music and it will be followed by a lecture of how westernization is destroying our culture. And the discussion will turn into a debate and take ridiculous leaps to ridiculous topics and they will forget about your music at the drop of a hat!
In another parallel family when wild relatives appear and demand to listen to your nightingalic voice, you play a rabindrasangeet on your harmonium and you become society’s favorite child and every mother starts scolding their children and demand they become more like you.
No, it’s doesn’t exactly happen most of the times, I’m just giving you examples of how they appear in my head.
I don’t hate Tagore or his music or works, I enjoy them at times. But I find the obsession quite amusing. If you go to the book fair and buy dozens of books that have caught your attention and you haven’t bought even one book by our dear Tagore then you should be prepared for hearing these words ‘Robi Thakur er kaj na porle, onek kichchui sahityer miss korli. Unar moto likha ki ajkal ar pawa jae? Shudu Robi Thakur noe, Bakim Chandra, Ashapurna Devi, Satyajit Roy oder likha tao porish maa, kaje dibe. (translation: If you haven’t read Tagore’s works, you have missed a lot in literature. No one writes it like him anymore. Not only him, you should also browse through the works of Bankim Chandra, Ashapurna Devi, Satyajit Roy. Reading their work will help you in the future).
It doesn’t stop there, people also visit Shantiniketan in Posh Mash( Posh is a month in the Bengali calendar and mash stands for month in Bengali) as a tribute to his memories. They even visit the Shantiniketan Vishya Bharati University. It is beautiful and I’ll tell you more about that place when I do a tourism chapter on Shantiniketan.
The only thing that I find annoying about this obsession is playing his songs in the damn traffic signal crossings. I get it that his music is great and everything but why play it there? If we feel like listening to his music, we can always just youtube him! Those of us who don’t spend time on Internet can always buy his cd if he/she wants to listen to his music so bad. Who the hell is listening to them in the signal anyway? Of course except the traffic constables.
Imagine this situation:
Today it’s your exam, and you are already late. The traffic is on it’s peak and usually it takes only 45 minutes to reach your university but you have been stuck on the road for the past one hour and there’s only 30 minutes left before your exam starts. The bus is still standing in the signal so you decide to do your last minute cramming in the bus. And suddenly the tunes of o manjuri, o manjuri, aam er manjuri starts blasting in your eardrums. Then the red light goes green and the bus finally heads off towards your destination. You again shift your attention to the book, but alas! The catchy tune is already stuck in your head and when you instruct your mind to forget the catchy tune, it doesn’t listen to you but instead it just constantly replays the tune and even composes it’s own remix version. The bus drops you at your destination and you are standing in another signal for crossing the road now. Your university is a 5 minute walk away from there and there’s only 10 minutes left before your exam starts. Not only that but the temperature’s really high and the sun is glaring at you and flashing an evil smile as it tries to melt you to the ground. And then Agun er poroshmoni chhuao prane starts playing in the background. And all you can do is just stand there watch the cars and wait for the red lights to flash.
You have finally crossed the road and reached your uni and entered your assigned classroom. You raced the invigilator to class and your heart is beating really fast. You have started writing the exam and you trying really hard to remember the method of radio-carbon dating but all you can think about is the catchy tune that’s stuck on your head.
Isn’t it irritating?
That’s all I have to say for now. Until next time my mishti lok jon ;)
A/n2: So what do you guys think about this chapter? Did you like it or hate it? And I'll let you guys choose the topic of the next entry! What topic should I write about in the next chapter? Thank you for reading :) I've attached the video of a rabindrasangeet. Hope you guys enjoy it :)