But what made me feel relevant even now, making it a timeless classic is that it yearns for freedom from our very own limitations of the mind. This poem, written by the visionary during the period when the British ruled India, at first looked like written as a yearning for freedom from slavery. Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where words come out from the depth of truth Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high I was introduced to Tagore’s work in my school through this poem “Where the mind is without fear” from Gitanjali– The poet Rabindranath Tagore won the Nobel Prize for Literature for Gitanjali in the year 1913 which put Indian Literature in high regard across the world. It’s the simplicity in which Tagore brings out hope and the possibility to have conversations with God that makes it extraordinarily beautiful. The collection of poems captures the conversations of the poet with God in its profoundness even while keeping the language simple. Well, the Bengali collection had 157 poems while the English translated collection has only 103 poems. Written by the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali (which translates to “Song Offerings”) is a collection of translated poems of Tagore’s collection of Bengali poems titled Gitanjali. Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali is a treasure to be shared and enjoyed, consumed and let be consumed, discussed in platforms and yet relished in silence. This is more like a childlike joy of sharing a found treasure with friends. Though this post may be tagged under the category of a book review, let me be clear that this is not a book review.

This book is one that I don’t want to view from a reviewer’s lens. It’s with a feeling of reverence and fondness that I attempt at writing about this book.

You may think that you consume poetry consciously but there may come along a book, like Gitanjali, where poetry will consume you, wholly, making you feel both lost and found, leaving you with a gratified feeling.

Gora by rabindranath tagore