THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: By presenting it to Tagore, the Nobel Prize was honoured, opined poet O N V Kurup here on Tuesday. He was inaugurating the five-month-long programmes being organised by the Kerala Gandhi Smarak Nidhi (KGSN) to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore.
The programme, to be held in various educational and cultural institutions from January 17 to May 7, is being organised as part of the diamond jubilee of the KGSN.
“Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore remains the lone Indian winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature for almost a century. Some of the recent Nobel winners are not even on par with some second-grade Indian writers. I feel the Nobel was honoured by presenting to Tagore,” he said.
ONV said Tagore’s works were criticised in the West as they were not enjoyable for their mindscape.
Film director Adoor Gopalakrishnan presided over the function. “Tagore’s works are a mine of creativity which cannot be fully relished. He touched every space of creativity. Though he is more known to the world as the author of ‘Gitanjali’, he wrote 13 novels, more than 300 short stories, children’s literature, drams and a lot more,” Adoor said.
He said ‘Kabooliwalah’ was his favourite childhood book. Alumni of Santhiniketan P Gopinathan Nair and Mitraniketan K Vishwanathan were honoured at the function. A musical concert based on the poems of Tagore was presented by T Rama, a teacher at Sri Swati Tirunal College of Music, and team.