Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize, created much enthrallment among the European and American communities after the publication of the Gitanjali (Song Offerings), in November 1912 from the India Society of London. A novelist, short story writer, playwright, composer and essayist, Rabindranath was an educationist, actor and organiser as well.

My first encounter with Rabindranath Tagore was on a cold winter's day in early 1964. He was there as a sketch in pencil, on the mantelpiece of a Bengali home in Quetta. The flowing beard, the penetrating eyes, that sense of gravitas --- all of this came alive in that sketch. I asked the host, a colleague of my father's, who the gentleman was in the sketch. A great man, said he. He is Rabindranath Tagore, a poet. Young as I was, in primary school, I asked no more questions.

To mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Rabindranath Tagore, the first Asian Nobel Laureate, Harvard University Press has just published The Essential Tagore, the largest single volume of his work available in English. Tagore was as prolific and diverse a writer as the world has known, and this volume presents selections of his work across many genres, with new translations by Tagore scholars and others, includingAmitav Ghosh andAmit Chaudhuri.

William Shakespeare was “born under a rhyming planet” at the building now known as 'The Birthplace' in Henley Street in 1564. He died in 1616 on the same day --- April 23 --- and was buried in Stratford's Holy Trinity Church. At eighteen he married Anne Hathaway in 1582. Their eldest daughter Susanna was born to them in 1583 followed by the birth of twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith, in 1585 and a couple of years later they moved to London.

SUFIA KAMAL

The sky, the wind, the hills and river of this Bangla
Calls you Bangabandhu, if only you could come Back
To see still now seat of honour spreads on human heart
Still people remember you; mother, father, sister and brother
All those who are wretched, infirm and neglected

Siddique Mahmudur Rahman is an eminent author, researcher, translator, editor, publication specialist. He is pioneer in studying on Postal History and Postage Stamps of Bangladesh. He published 9 books on postal history and postage stamps of Bangladesh and was awarded 6 prises from USA, Australia, South Korea and Indonesia. He has six translated works. He has specialty in translation of Bangla poems.

by Julian Parrish

Merry Merry; I like to you marry!   
Please request your father to do hurry,  
Otherwise I shall think new
With out you.