While it is heartening to witness the pomp and pageantry organised to celebrate the sesquicentennial birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, one is compelled to ponder over the extent to which the true spirit of Tagore has been disseminated. Kabiguru's living legacy, the Visva Bharati University, is in a sorry state. So too are the rural development schemes promulgated by him in Sriniketan, which are but a shadow of his dreams. Finally, the prolonged copyright the university enjoyed over his literary works have proved a major stumbling block to bringing Tagore to the masses. It is a pity that years after his death, the world does not have complete translations of all his works, even in English. We can truly celebrate Tagore if we experience his genius and not relegate him to the realms of blind worship.
Kamolini Ghosh,
Kolkata
