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Gitanjali 35
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.
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1913 was awarded to Rabindranath Tagore "because of his profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse, by which, with consummate skill, he has made his poetic thought, expressed in his own English words, a part of the literature of the West."
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That poem of Tagore was there in our English text book of our School-Leaving year of 1956-57.
And my father taught it so well to our class that I had it by heart and can still recite some of it.
From the date of his Nobel Prize Award, it is clear that the poem was written during the early years of the last century (Gandhiji was still in South Africa). And India was firmly under the British Rule.
The anguished yearning in that poem clearly shows that the poet's India then was NOT that "heaven of freedom" into which he asks his Father to let his country awake.
Particularly Bengal...which was partitioned by Lord Curzon on communal lines presciently...and the capital of British India shifted from Calcutta to New Delhi.
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1965: IIT Kharagpur (West Bengal):
Unwittingly at the age of 21, I walked into the portals of IIT KGP in West Bengal (by then Bengal acquired its portended adjective) as a junior lecturer in its physics department.
Let me describe the ambience of that place then:
1. "Where the mind is without fear"
I quickly saw that I had nothing to fear. There was no Attendance Register for faculty. Everyone lived in the Campus. Just take your classes and go home and sleep...no one questions you. Even technical assistants in our departmental workshop had to sign only twice...once at 7.30 AM and again at 4.30 PM. The Main Gate was always open and everyone had their pushbikes...just a gentle push on the pedal to go in or out.
2. "And the head is held high"
There was no Rotation of Headships. The post was permanent. Once you reach your headship you held it high till you retire or die (whichever is earlier). And there were only 14 Heads. And the Director who appoints them was friends with them. So, if you were a good boy and didn't rub him the wrong way, your HoD will get you your promotions sooner or later (for me it was always later...last but not the least).
3. "Where knowledge is free"
There was this colossal Central Library with its open-access system. You could pick up any book from any rack and take it to any floor you want and read it to your heart's content. And if you liked it, you could borrow it from the Issue Counter manned by the charming Chanda Babu. Since he was a part-time Library Assistant and full-time Insurance Agent, he was always courteous to you if you played your cards right. Just tell him you are a faculty and then smile and then you could borrow ANY number of books or journals and keep them safe with you for ANY number or years. When Gagan Babu retired, he returned 108 books (since he needed a No-Dues-Certificate from the Central Library in order to get his pension). I wanted to read and borrow Oliver Wendell Holmes's "Autocrat of the Breakfast Table" as soon as I joined in 1965. I could find its Call Number and Accession Number from the cards kept in their chests of drawers. But I never found it in its designated almirah or elsewhere although I kept looking for it daily everywhere for over a month. I asked Chanda Babu. Even he couldn't tell where it vanished. I found it 30 years later on its proper rack...someone returned it much after Chanda Babu himself retired (or died whichever was earlier,...sorry...)
4. "Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls"
Students were from all over India. And 50% of the faculty were from outside West Bengal (20% were refugees from what was then East Pakistan)
5. "Where words come out from the depth of truth"
Students were smarter than their teachers mostly. So there was no way you could try and bluff them and get away with it...you wouldn't be ragged in the class since you set their question papers, you checked their answer scripts, and you awarded their marks...but the campus was small and your reputation spread within no time (either way). The phrases "High-Funda" and "Nil-Funda" floated around like Birthday Balloons.
6. "Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection"
Mostly for urgent promotions, wardenships, JEE Question Paper Settings (free air travel and hospitality) etc.
7. "Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit"
You no longer needed to teach from century-old text books or your own decades-old class notes. Instead of Whittaker's Mechanics, you had access to Goldstein's in the Central Library (in case you want it; otherwise your 'knowledge was free' to stay put).
8. "Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action"
There was this Netaji Auditorium which screened ancient Bengali reels of Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen (grainy and muffled). Also silent movies of the Charlie Chaplain era. And then this Annual Tagore Memorial Lecture specially designed to move you to places "where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action"...viz. to Co-Op Canteen or Harrys...
9. "Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake"
My Father who taught me that poem of Tagore was born during the First World War and begot me during the Second. Both of us were wide awake on our First Independence day...there was too much noise in the streets of Buchireddypalem where the Reddys of Congress made their heavenly future...
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Here is the poem in Bengali Script. Even if you can't read Bengali, you can see its simple and splendid rhyme pattern:
চিত্ত যেথা ভয়শূন্য, উচ্চ যেথা শির
জ্ঞান যেথা মুক্ত, যেথা গৃহের প্রাচীর,
আপন প্রাঙ্গণতলে দিবসশর্বরী
বসুধারে রাখে নাই খণ্ড ক্ষুদ্র করি,
যেথা বাক্য হৃদয়ের উৎসমুখ হতে
উচ্ছ্বসিয়া উঠে, যেথা নির্বারিত স্রোতে
দেশে দেশে দিশে দিশে কর্মধারা ধায়
অজস্র সহস্রবিধ চরিতার্থতায়,
যেথা তুচ্ছ আচারের মরুবালুরাশি
বিচারের স্রোতঃপথ ফেলে নাই গ্রাসি,
পৌরুষেরে করে নি শতধা, নিত্য যেথা
তুমি সর্ব কর্ম চিন্তা আনন্দের নেতা,
নিজ হস্তে নির্দয় আঘাত করি, পিতঃ;
ভারতেরে সেই স্বর্গে করো জাগরিত৷
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