At the age of 11 she was asked to write a poem as a school assignment for which she ferreted around her mother’s book shelf and found a volume of collection of modern poems and blatantly copied it. The next day she got to know she had plagiarised nothing but Proshno, perhaps one of the greatest works of Rabindranath Tagore. “Of course I was punished which was ego-bruising but on the other hand, I think, I should have been rewarded for choosing Tagore and demonstrating the fact that I could at least read him at that age,” said Sharmila Tagore.
“That was my first brush with Tagore and that’s when my mother told me I should better know who Tagore is, so that I don’t make such idiotic revelations of myself ever again,” she added.
The book focusses on the impulses behind the world renowned literary figure’s driving ability, his thoughts and emotions. It sheds light on his awareness about dichotomies of life and the tensions between the contraries, both within himself and the world around him. Through his writing and creative expressions, the drama of differences and the desire of unity and harmony play around, which manifests in one of his quotes, “Sameness and difference both must be taken into account. All human beings are indeed equal yet all human beings are different.”
As Chakravarty elaborates on the anthology, “Tagore’s understanding of differences is not simplistic, in black and white binaries. Nor is it neutral because it’s not a simple celebration of plurality. For him the world is a multi colored place offering a spectrum of endless possibilities hence the title, Shades of Difference.”
The book is a complex approach to questions of difference. Some of the forms which drove his writing, are, life and death, nature and culture, the world of the body and the spirit. On the other hand his work addresses different social hierarchies and inequalities. “One particular social hierarchy that troubled Tagore throughout his writing career was the difference between the positions of men and women,” added Chakravarty.
Out of the collection, Sharmila Tagore chose to read from the metaphorical poignant story of Tagore Jivito Armito translated to ‘living and the dead.’ In the story, Tagore dwells on the social structure that existed in his time. He stresses on the paralysis of rational thought that traps a woman to a space that the patriarchal order has decided for her and how impossible it is, for her to transcend that fate. Sharmila also spoke on how one of her films, Devi (a film by Satyajit Ray released in 1960), was inspired from the works of Tagore. “The idea came from Tagore and I value that film a lot. It was similar to his idea of portrayal of women back then,” she said.
Sharmila’s maternal grandmother latika Tagore was the granddaughter of Rabindranath Tagore’s brother Dwijendranath. On her not so profound knowledge of her great grandfather’s works Sharmila said, “I’m not an authority on Tagore so I’ll leave the serious discussions. All I’ll say is, the book is a wonderful addition to one’s library. Many people have called Tagore as Gurudev or someone who’s only harping on his spiritual aspect of his poetry. But it’s not just that. His writing is concerned with various facets and the book brings that out. And that is how we should remember Tagore. Maybe I can increase my knowledge of him a little more.”
The actor also added, “I don’t have that much authority on Tagore but yes I have a wonderful surname. It’s my heritage and it has opened many doors for me. It’s a privilege to be born in such a household. He unfortunately died three years before I was born so I could not have any direct interaction with him. But I have heard great stories from my mother.”
The book comes with a DVD, Tagore and his world, which is intended to add to the written material in the book. “The DVD has sections devoted to Tagore’s life, his journey, his music, some of which is archival and the other parts are contemporary. We are all learners when it comes to Tagore,” Chakravarty concluded.
photo Pankaj Kumar