Nobel Prize, Barack Obama & Mahatma Gandhi

US President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for giving the world “hope for a better future” and striving for nuclear disarmament. The decision to award one of the world’s top accolades to a president less than nine months into his first term, who has yet to score a major foreign policy success, came as a major surprise.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised Obama for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” The first African-American to hold his country’s highest office, Obama has called for disarmament and worked to restart the stalled Middle East peace process since taking office in January 2009.

Obama himself put the award in perspective while admitting he was both surprised and humbled by it. He said he did not feel he deserved to be in the company of so many great transformative figures of peace . “I do not view it as recognition of my own accomplishment, rather as an affirmation of American leadership of all nations,” Obama said in a brief media appearance at the White House Rose Garden, seeking to deflect some of the criticism for what many across the world feel is an award he is yet to earn and has come too early. I

t reminds us that Obama’s idol Mahatma Gandhi who was most deserved candidate for this prize ,was denied  by the then imperialist Nobel committee. Gandhi was nominated in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947 and finally a few days before his assassination in January 1948. The omission has been publicly regretted by later members of the Nobel Committee, though the committee never came out with the reasons for not awarding the prize to the most deserving candidate of the century. So the criticism /reactions for awarding the peace prize  of 2009 to Barack Obama, who has not done anything towards peace except dreaming ,are well justified. It is like awarding a Olympic medal before stepping into the track.

 

Nobel Prize for Chemistry-2009

Dr. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Nobel prize for Chemistry 2009 was declared on Wednesday in Stockholm. Indian born, US citizen,  Dr. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and the same he shared with  Thomas A Steitz of US and Ada E Yonath from Israel.  Royal Swedish Academy said that Nobel Prize was awarded to them” for studies of the structure and function of the Ribosome”. One of the core processes in life. Ribosomes generated protein, which regulate chemistry in all living organisms. Modern researches for the development of antibiotic are based on their work.

 

Pachise Baishakh – a tribute to Tagore

A Tribute to Rabindranath Tagore on his 148th birthday on Pachise Baishakh as per Bengali Calender, which falls on 08th May 2008.

Rabindranath Tagore is the first Asian person to be awarded with the Nobel prize in 1913 in literature for his book “Gitanjali” and probably the most prominent personality in the cultural world of Indian subcontinent. He is mainly known as a poet, but his multifaceted talent showered upon different branches of art, such as, Poetry, novels, short stories, articles dramas, essays, painting etc. He was a social reformer, patriot and above all, a great humanitarian and philosopher. To understand his multifaceted talent, his works, one has to do research work on him. It is amazing the way he has written so much in his life time. Here is a piece of his work from his “The  Gardener” :

IN THE DUSKY PATH OF A DREAM

by: Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)

In the dusky path of a dream I went to seek the love who was mine in a former life.

Her house stood at the end of a desolate street.

In the evening breeze her pet peacock sat drowsing on its perch, and the pigeons were silent in their corner.

She set her lamp down by the portal and stood before me.

She raised her large eyes to my face and mutely asked, “Are you well, my friend?”

I tried to answer, but our language had been lost and forgotten.

I thought and thought; our names would not come to my mind.

Tears shone in her eyes. She held up her right hand to me. I took it and stood silent.

Our lamp had flickered in the evening breeze and died.

Bangla culture, especially music of Bengal (India) and Bangladesh too has been greatly influenced by Rabindranath Tagore – by his thousands of songs and poetries. The songs known as Rabindrasangeet is still popular. The songs of Tagore have an eternal appeal and is permanently placed in the heart of the Bengalis. In Bengal its like a rituals in their lives that in every house children learn and practice Rabindrasangeet.

Amartya Sen in his book “Tagore and His India” says : “Rabindranath is a towering figure in the millennium-old literature of Bengal. Anyone who becomes familiar with this large and flourishing tradition will be impressed by the power of Tagore’s presence in Bangladesh and in India. His poetry as well as his novels, short stories, and essays are very widely read, and the songs he composed reverberate around the eastern part of India and throughout Bangladesh.”

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Bhuban dacoit & Shantiniketan

Once upon a time today’s Shantiniketan was known as BhubanDanga, which was the den of a local dacoit named Bhuban. “Danga” means a vast unfertile plane land. The land was owned by the Tagore family. Rabindranath Tagore’s father, Maharshi Debendranath Tagore, renamed it as Shantiniketan, which means abode (niketan) of peace (shanti).

Path Bhavan (Above) & Basant Utsab during Holi, festival of colours

Rabindranath Tagore started an open air school there for children named as “Path Bhavan”. Tagore’s idea was that of learning in a natural environment, in the open, under the trees, would be more closer to nature. Classes in the open still in vogue there.

Khowai, Shantiniketan

After Tagore received the Nobel Prize in 1913 for literature (for the book Gitanjali), the school was expanded into an university named as Visva Bharati. Today Visva Bharati is one of the renowned universities, which attracts thousands of students each year. Shantiniketan is also a tourist attraction because Rabindranath wrote many of his literary classics here.

This building was built by Maharshi Debendranath Tagore, father of Rabindranath Tagore

First woman Prime minister of India, Indira Gandhi, renowned film director Satyajit Ray and Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen are among its most illustrious students.

Rabindra Bhavan, the useum from where the Nobel Medallion was stolen

Adda during Off period

The most prestigious possession of Shantiniketan, the pride of the nation, the “Nobel Prize” medallion of Kabiguru Rabindranath Tagore which was in display in the ‘Rabindra Bhavan’ (Museum) till it was stolen in the beginning of 2006 and it was done so precisely that country’s top investigating agency too failed to trace it.

Though BhubanDanga has undergone lot many changes in the past but Bhuban dacoit, it seems, has left his legacy and still alive through his modern day decoits who unlike Bhuban decoit, are with us in the society, in disguise. These decoits are more dangerous than the Bhuban decoit because they are in disguise and CBI too failed to find them.

UNESCO will soon declare Shantiniketan as a world Heritage site.

(Visited Shantiniketan  in March 2008)(Some picture taken from Times of India)