#Tagore-153

THE Man. Rabindranath Tagore. He's THE Man! \m/

   So, It's His 153rd birthday. If you're staying anywhere in Bengal, the first thing you notice on this day is a host of neighbourhood loudspeakers trying to shove some hundred antique songs down your senses. You are either sick of it, or have gradually become used to it. Or it might be that you've tolerated it long enough to have actually taken a liking to it now, as is in my case. Never mind, for this has been my prime source of Rabindra Sangeet learning, for decades now.

   The main entrance of our residential leads directly into a buzzing intersection, and the rear gate shares boundaries with a private bus depot of the city. Therefore, when "Ore Grihobashi" goes live on the former's playlist with the latter playing "Ami Chini Go Chini", simultaneously, at their peak volumes, Me the middleman turns an avid listener. Not out of sheer love, though. It's a hopeless yet remarkable exercise. Pick one song and concentrate; however hard you try, the other one will definitely barge in and shatter your focus!

Here's another Today's Special:

   You'll go about your daily chores in an hour. But before, it's breakfast time and you've switched on the News channel to get an update of what's happening in the city (Sloth...the newspaper is right here, still!). Wait...what's this? You didn't select the Music channels by mistake, right? Uhmm...Nope. It's OnlyNews+ all right, covering the gala, live. Fair enough, it's #Tagore-153 after all. There are other options too, for the news. But it isn't long before you discover that these other, poor 'News' channels couldn't get the broadcasting rights for the biggie event and hence had to settle for some lesser-known musician with a guitar around his neck. He comes over to the studio, sings two popular lines and then goes on and on about how The Great Man means everything to him, in his life. That's when you get ticked off.

- Who's this guy again? Just why should I listen to his rubbish instead of the things I actually Need to know?

Last but not the least, there's the Social Network.

   As we all know, we've come a fair distance now and are easily heading towards a time when - If it's not on Facebook, it isn't happening.

The News Feed is flooding with Tagore Trivia. I mean, sure, there are those genuine folks whose updates you actually look forward to seeing, every time. But the number of unlikely, and newborn "fans" today, is Too Damn High!

Just imagine the number of 'likes' this DP would have on Facebook, had He been around today. Enough said!

Rabindranath Tagore. Certainly a tedious name to pronounce for today's Swagger population. Not a problem. The acronym can be pretty cool as well - RT. Whoa! Take a step back, 'ReTweet' and 'RottenTomatoes'. OUR RT is the Greatest Ever! B-)