Hailing from the Department of Chemistry, Prabir da had infinitely surprised me by his fascination or rather his impatience with Tagore. Equations are not so easily determined, I realized. Obsessed with Organic Chemistry, Prabir da’s love (or hate) for Tagore seemed to me a bit astonishing. He is so well-versed in Tagore that he can quote at random from his poems or songs and refer to significant moments of his novels or plays effortlessly. My love for Tagore knows no bounds; I am too infatuated with his songs, in particular and many a moment of loneliness has been made meaningful to me by such melodies as “Dariye achho tumi amar gaan er opare”, “Modhur tomar sesh je na pai go”, “Eki labonye purno pran, pran e esho he” or “Sakal i phuralo swapano praye…”. I was, therefore, delighted on knowing Prabir da’s seemingly unmatchable knowledge of Tagore. But our discussion on the poet hardly edged on the emotional; rather it, till date, verges on the argumentative, much to my admiring annoyance.
Prabir da has this typical tendency of flowing against the tide. But you cannot call him a rebel without a cause. For, whatever debate he gets into is seldom baseless. His meticulous reading of Tagore’s works, particularly his autobiographical writings, his biographies and letters have given him access to a lot of things about the poet unknown to the common mass who pretend to love the Nobel Laureate without knowing much about him particularly. Prabir da is all too prepared to prove that Tagore has a lot of faults to his credit, and he is definitely not as good as he is portrayed by all and sundry. He is particularly annoyed by Tagore’s complying with the dowry system in one of his daughter’s wedding. Prabir da feels that a great poet who almost emerged as a philosopher in his later life should not have agreed on giving dowry to marry off his daughter. Given Tagore’s social status, he could have very well bypassed the dowry system or perhaps never married his daughter off. He should have kept her at home and sufficiently educate her to make her independent. I refuse to see argument in this logic. I keep on telling him that this does not in anyway affect Tagore’s literary output. But a bit of a headstrong Prabir da, who I believe is also a socialist to some extent, refuses to pay any heed to my earnest protest.
What is interesting about Prabir da is that he is basically an iconoclast. He belonged to a music and dance group of a suburban town when he was younger. An accomplished tabla-player, he accompanied the singers in their performances. The group was overtly and compulsively Tagorish. Prabir da, in an intense urge to defy them, read up all he could on Tagore. And now when anybody confronts him emotionally, he puts him/her off by some information about the poet which is not quite well-known. He enjoys the discomfiture of his rival immensely. His inherently argumentative nature has actually made him anti-Tagore. But what Prabir da would never admit is that his profound love for the poet had actually prompted him to sit through and chew his books while boys of his age played outside. Tell me, would you read a poet or a novelist whom you can’t tolerate? No, of course. So, even if Prabir da refuses to confess his admiration for our beloved Rabindranath, I have a strong belief that he can very well eulogise the poet by reciting his own verse--- “Amar poran jaha chaye, tumi tai…”!
