I have probably said this a million times, but I'll say it once more - I feel very proud to be a Bengali. However, recently, I was hearing about many weird behaviors which are not the stuff that Bengalis used to like. A class of people whose motto in life could be defined in a one liner as - plain living and high thinking doesn't really match the heavy drinking, party going and slang speaking people I now see back home. It is sad how a region famous for being the cultural hub of the nation has fallen into such a deplorable condition. I was thinking about this change and wondered if things are really getting bad or if I am getting old. Maybe it's both...then to free my mind I started listening to Debabrata Biswas on Spotify. When Bengalis run into issues, they turn to Rabindranath. Then I thought about these two families - the Tagores and the Rays (or Ray Chowdhurys) who enlightened Bengal and brought our culture up by quite a few notches.
Every Indian has heard about Rabindranath. He is but one jewel of the crown. Almost all of his siblings were endowed with various degrees of creativity. Starting from Prince Dwarakanath, this family has been the home of various philosophers, mathematicians, composers, playwrights and in many cases polymaths. The Tagore household can easily be called the hub of modernism in early Bengal. Other than Rabindranath himself, there were many people worth mentioning. Satyendranath, who was Rabindranath's elder brother was the first Indian ICS. I think the fact that he urged his wife Gyanadanandini to accompany him to his workplace in Bombay is a more creditable thing than him being an ICS. This lady was the one who taught Bengali women how to wear a saree in a modern style. Whoever wears a saree these days, even the ones who look up Youtube videos on how to drape a saree are actually indirectly following her directions! Jyotirindranath was another elder brother of Rabindranath. He was a playwright and composer. There are quite a few songs where he composed the tune while playing the piano and Rabindranath would put words on the fly. Swarnakumari was Rabindranath's elder sister who was the first woman in India to edit a magazine. Other than these people, there were various nephews, nieces and other relatives who have all shone in various facets of life. One of them whom I like a lot is the painter and story teller Abanindranath.
Almost overlapping the age of Rabindranath was the family of Rays. Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury was a stalwart of that family, but here also there were many other people who were famous for being professors of Math and Sanskrit and also being great cricket players at the same time. More or less everyone wrote books. One brother worked at the Geological Survey of India so he wrote stories about wild animals while traveling to various parts of the undivided country. Sukumar Ray is a personal favorite of mine. Someone I would like to meet in heaven if possible. I can see myself talking to him, reading his works, laughing and enjoying every moment by being the crazy self that I am. The magazine that Upendrakishore started which Sukumar and later his son Satyajit also were editors of is so far the best children's magazine in Bengali. Now that I am growing older, I can understand how they tried to imbibe the best things in the whole society by teaching children the right things in a fun way. Those editions have riddles, puzzles, contests for children, story writing competitions which I like even now. Arnab bought a compiled copy of all the editions of the first year. Even though it is more than a century old we both love reading it. Satyajit Ray was probably the last lamp of the Bengal Renaissance. People might call him a movie director, a writer or composer or even artist, I would call him a teacher. In every book he wrote for young children and in almost all the movies he directed, he taught us something. Be it the right pronunciation of Job Charnock's name (it is pronounced "Jobe" and not job as in work) or how camels store water, he taught us all those. Satyajit Ray's aunt, Leela Majumdar is another personal favorite of mine. She taught me to cook, if not anything else, and reading her recipes give me the same enjoyment as reading a fun story book.
If these two families didn't exist, not that we would lose some of the best minds of our society, we would possibly still be in the dark ages. In everything I do, I say, even my tastes in literature and music, my views about the society and the world are in some means the result of what these two families endowed us with and indirectly how I was molded.
Every Indian has heard about Rabindranath. He is but one jewel of the crown. Almost all of his siblings were endowed with various degrees of creativity. Starting from Prince Dwarakanath, this family has been the home of various philosophers, mathematicians, composers, playwrights and in many cases polymaths. The Tagore household can easily be called the hub of modernism in early Bengal. Other than Rabindranath himself, there were many people worth mentioning. Satyendranath, who was Rabindranath's elder brother was the first Indian ICS. I think the fact that he urged his wife Gyanadanandini to accompany him to his workplace in Bombay is a more creditable thing than him being an ICS. This lady was the one who taught Bengali women how to wear a saree in a modern style. Whoever wears a saree these days, even the ones who look up Youtube videos on how to drape a saree are actually indirectly following her directions! Jyotirindranath was another elder brother of Rabindranath. He was a playwright and composer. There are quite a few songs where he composed the tune while playing the piano and Rabindranath would put words on the fly. Swarnakumari was Rabindranath's elder sister who was the first woman in India to edit a magazine. Other than these people, there were various nephews, nieces and other relatives who have all shone in various facets of life. One of them whom I like a lot is the painter and story teller Abanindranath.
Almost overlapping the age of Rabindranath was the family of Rays. Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury was a stalwart of that family, but here also there were many other people who were famous for being professors of Math and Sanskrit and also being great cricket players at the same time. More or less everyone wrote books. One brother worked at the Geological Survey of India so he wrote stories about wild animals while traveling to various parts of the undivided country. Sukumar Ray is a personal favorite of mine. Someone I would like to meet in heaven if possible. I can see myself talking to him, reading his works, laughing and enjoying every moment by being the crazy self that I am. The magazine that Upendrakishore started which Sukumar and later his son Satyajit also were editors of is so far the best children's magazine in Bengali. Now that I am growing older, I can understand how they tried to imbibe the best things in the whole society by teaching children the right things in a fun way. Those editions have riddles, puzzles, contests for children, story writing competitions which I like even now. Arnab bought a compiled copy of all the editions of the first year. Even though it is more than a century old we both love reading it. Satyajit Ray was probably the last lamp of the Bengal Renaissance. People might call him a movie director, a writer or composer or even artist, I would call him a teacher. In every book he wrote for young children and in almost all the movies he directed, he taught us something. Be it the right pronunciation of Job Charnock's name (it is pronounced "Jobe" and not job as in work) or how camels store water, he taught us all those. Satyajit Ray's aunt, Leela Majumdar is another personal favorite of mine. She taught me to cook, if not anything else, and reading her recipes give me the same enjoyment as reading a fun story book.
If these two families didn't exist, not that we would lose some of the best minds of our society, we would possibly still be in the dark ages. In everything I do, I say, even my tastes in literature and music, my views about the society and the world are in some means the result of what these two families endowed us with and indirectly how I was molded.
