Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore – a legend

Today (May 9, 2010)  is the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), the legendary Bengali poet, philosopher, educationist, essayist, musician, novelist and playwright.

Wikipedia rightly refers to the person who alone reshaped Bengali literature and gifted with worldwide respect as a “Bengali polymath.” The word polymath means a person of wide-ranging knowledge or learning. His life and writings is a subject by itself but I here make an attempt to put down some of the interesting or lesser known facts about him.

• Kaviguru Rabindranath Tagore was the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913 for Gitanjali.
• Rabindranath loved and admired Gandhi Ji and it was he who named the father of the nation “Mahatma” which is Sanskrit for great soul.
• Tagore is the only poet to have penned the national anthems of two countries – “Jana Gana Mana” for India and “Amar Shonar Bangla for Bangladesh”
• He started writing peoms as early as when he was just 8. His first work was published when he was 16 under the pseudonym Bhanusingho. In 1877, he wrote the Bengali language’s first short story – Bhikarini. Read the rest of this entry »

Malathi Holla – a story of will power

As I grew up I realised that you need legs to run and wings to fly. I was hurt. But I didn’t give up. I knew, one day, I would run… – Malathi K. Holla

Malathi Holla is a character to emulate, a personality to admire and a sportsperson to idolize. She did not let her physical handicap which kept her bound to her wheel-chair since when she was just a 15 month old girl because of polio.

Malathi Holla launched her first authorized biography A Different Spirit on July 8, 2009. Clearly, it was an evening that celebrated the triumph of the human spirit over physical handicap. Cricket legend Syed Kirmani released the book authored by enior journalist and CorpCom Head of Hindustan Aeronauticals Limited M. Anantha Krishnan. Read the rest of this entry »

Movie: The Kite Runner

I love watching movies on my PC. It was almost a addiction during my college days.  Naturally, after college I hardly got time to watch movies or when I had time, I lacked the energy. (I love watching movies and watch it very intently – that requires time, energy and a relaxed mood so that I dont miss out anything.)

Now, yesterday I got The Kite Runner from one of my colleagues and watched it.  It pulled me in at the beginning and held me through the very end. I am even contemplating adding a LCD screen to my PC dedicated for movies.

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