RABINDRANATH TAGORE

Tagore! You are our poet, our identity,

Our leader, our mentor,

To whom we return

At dark nights and in shining days.

Tagore! You  are a torch-bearer,

A cool shade to trammeled millions.

Wo/man you celebrate

And we are your avowed followers

Our land you inherit

And make us tall

Before the eyes of the world.

Thousand miles of woes and wounds

You walk alone with calm and poise,

And we wonder how!

You are a symbol of protest

Against unreason, superstitions,

Bordered minds, narrowed walls

Of caste, creed, religion, language

And we love you for your courage.

You are an ocean

And we strive merely to taste a drop

From your unfathomable depths.

And we worship you not

With flowers and festoons

But strive to follow the path you laid ahead.

You save us in the past,

And in future you fail us not

Tagore, I know.