Tagore in Chennai

Yesterday… Oct 25th … 2014

Lovely evening… Its monsoon time in chennai… The rains have been heavy.. but evening was rain free, and the weather very pleasant. Peace.

As I walked in the grounds of TS in Adyar, felt an urge to step up into the circular Blavatsky Bungalow and take a picture of the plaque embedded in the wall.

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Rabindranath Tagore had been here…. Exactly eighty years ago… The plaque commemorated his stay in this bungalow from Oct 21 to Nov 2, 1934… Here’s a partial view of the historic bungalow…

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Wondering how wonderful it would have been to have seen Tagore when he stayed here… idly… I asked God google.to search “Tagore Chenai 1934″… And Bing-O (no offense to Bing)… Came this page from the Hindu newspaper

This was an interview with Smt G Sundari, who has been associated with TS and Kalakshetra all her life. And she was there in 1934, when Tagore stayed in this bungalow.

Here is the excerpt from that article in Hindu…

“One of my earliest memories is of seeing Rabindranath Tagore during his visit to Madras in 1934. He was very impressive, with his ochre robes and his long beard. He had come with his students as part of his South India tour to raise funds for Shantiniketan. The president of the Society, George Arundale told him, ‘Gurudev, we don’t want you to have to go around collecting funds at your age,’ and assured him that they’d collect the money for him. So Tagore stayed on at the Society for about 10 days, and was well taken care of at the Blavatsky Bungalow near the big banyan tree.

All of us children would run in and out of the bungalow — there were no restrictions on our movements. Tagore would be reclining in an easy chair in the hall and when a child went up to him, his arm would go gently around him or her. But what fascinated us most was the sight of his students combing out his long beard!”

Ah yes, the beard…The beard of Moses!

Here is the picture of Tagore in Chennai in 1934 at the Congress headquarters… (From the Hindu article)

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He is 73 years of age…. What a presence!

Signing off this post with a Youtube link of Tagore’s voice…

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Ok, folks,, got to go…

Jodi Tor Dak Shune Keu Na Ase Tobe Ekla Cholo Re