Indian, Bangladeshi embassies in Beijing jointly celebrate birth anniversaries of Tagore-Nazrul

BEIJING: With theatre, Rabindra Sangeet and recitation of the iconic ‘Where the mind is without fear’ in 14 languages brought alive an evening at the Indian Embassy here to celebrate Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore and Bangladesh’s national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam.

Held at the picturesque amphitheatre at the Indian Embassy premises on Friday evening, the event was jointly organised with the Bangladesh Embassy to mark Tagore’s 163rd birth anniversary and 125th birth anniversary of ‘Vidrohikavi’ Nazrul.

The Rabindra Nazrul Jayanti featured 40 Indian and Bangladesh artists drawn from the diaspora, this was the second time both embassies organised the event here in the Chinese capital city; the first such joint event was held in 2022.

A cultural tribute titled, ‘Into that heaven of freedom’ – a joint production of both embassies – was part of the evening that was presided over by the Indian Ambassador to China Pradeep Kumar Rawat and his Bangladesh counterpart Md Jashim Uddin.

Conceived and directed by T S Vivekanand, the First Secretary of the Indian Embassy, the event saw diplomats and members of the diaspora of both countries as well as some of the Chinese admirers of Tagore recite the inspirational poetry of both Tagore and Nazrul.

The presentations included a short story ‘Boloi,’ a sequence from the play ‘Muktodara,’ and concluded with the recitation of Tagore’s famous poem ‘Where the mind is without fear’ in 14 languages, according to Vivekanand, who specialises in modern English poetry.

Rawat and Jashim Uddin inaugurated a curated set of 10 paintings titled ‘Last Harvest’ by Tagore.

In his speech at the event, Rawat spoke about the relevance of reading Tagore and Nazrul Islam in the current age while Jashim Uddin spoke about the integral nature of the works of both the poets with the Bengali culture.