Boyhood Days‘I was then about seven or eight. I had no useful role to play in this world; and that old palki, too, had been dismissed from all forms of useful employment . . .’ Hidden inside an ancient palanquin on a hot, lonely afternoon, a young boy sets off on an imaginary adventure. He encounters gangs of bandits, arrives at palaces where kings bathe in sandalwood-scented water, and the hunter accompanying him gets rid of the tiger lurking in the forest with a bang! of his gun. The boy, gifted with a vivid imagination and a sensitive mind, grew up to become one of India’s greatest poets and thinkers. In Boyhood Days Rabindranath Tagore recounts his growing up years with gentle wit and humour. He describes life in nineteenth-century Kolkata when the only light in the evening came from castor-oil lamps; when hackney carriages raced through the city’s streets and women travelled in palanquins to the Ganga for their bath. He writes about his early love for music and poetry, the myriad influences that shaped his thinking and about the other members of his large, gifted family. Boyhood Days brings to life an era long past and traces the journey of an icon from childhood to the time he takes his first steps in the world of literature. |
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Abdul adult afternoon appeared babu bath began Bengali calendar Bharati Borodada Bouthakrun Boyhood Days boys Brahmo Samaj Brajeswar called Chhelebela childhood classical music composed Dada dark Debendranath Debendranath Tagore Debi Dwarakanath Tagore Dwijendranath Tagore elder brothers elephant English eyes famous flavour floor flower Ganga garden estate girls Gitanjali Goswamiji heard heart Hindustani classical music Hiranyakashipu India Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar jatra performance Jorasanko Jorasanko House Jyotidada Jyotirindranath Tagore khuri knew Kolkata learning listened magic melody mind mother never night Nilkamal o’clock one’s paan Padma palanquin palki pathshala pehelwan play poem pond portico Prahlad Rabindranath Radha Chakravarty raga raginis Ramayana Ramprasad Sen reader remained remember river rooftops Russell’s sahib Sanskrit Sejdada Shahibagh Shantiniketan Shilaidaha sometimes songs story sweetmeat Tagore Tagore’s terrace tiger tobacco today’s translation tree tutor veranda verse Vishnu W.B. Yeats women words write young zamindar