Geethanjali, named after Bard’s anthology of poems, sees him as a father figure. She pays a poetic tribute to Tagore, on his 159^th birthday, as Special Feature, exclusively for Different Truths.

His voice crooned through my teacher,
Her voice clear and pure feeling every word in the verse,
“ Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high,
Into that heaven of freedom my Father let my country awake,”
The tune soulful and the words haunting me,
But what would one know of pained lyrics in grade 4?
Patriotism was a day’s celebration for us.
Somehow they did .

Wringing my senses, wrenching my heart and squeezing fountains in my eyes,
I crooned too leading the choir.
I needed to learn more about my name that titled his book.

His bearded silhouette and deep eyes followed me home from school.
I wondered many years about his magnetic persona,
I doodled him.

He visited me again in a zephyr through my class window,
This time grade 8
Even his prose sounded like poetry.
The class went sniffling unabashedly shedding tears,
It was the right of young adolescents to do so.
Cabuliwala became my hero and the author of that short story even more.

I pursued him falling in love with his wisdom and his beautiful mind,
My quest throwing me into lyrical adventures with a god who can be a friend, that exhilarated me,
I realised that I had a world of words within me,
“Paperboat” was my first poem ever, but I didn’t realise he wrote one of the same title, but “Paper Boats”.
It brought a smile to my heart as it skipped a beat,
Some call him Gurudeva, some referred to him as a Nobel laureate, Bhanu Singha Thakur, Biswakabi, Tagore,
To me he remained the Father of “Gitanjali” mentoring me through his verses,
And today my biological father brims with pride reading me for he knew he named me right.
“Song offering”

Photo from the Internet