KEEPING TAGORE ALIVE: Performers enact Tasher Desh at the Union Club and Library in Ranchi while children dance to a Tagore song on Durga Mandir grounds in Hirapur, Dhanbad (below) on Rabindra Jayanti on Wednesday.

Keeping alive the legacy of Nobel laureate and versatile genius Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), people in the capital and coal capital recited his poems, sang his compositions or danced to them, or staged his dance dramas.

In the capital, over a 100 people, including schoolchildren, under the aegis of socio-cultural outfit Bangalee Yuva Manch, gathered at Tagore Hill in the morning to recite his poems, perform Rabindrasangeet or Rabindranritya.

In the evening, members of the Union Club and Library staged Tasher Desh, a biting satire on fascism and freedom, at Plaza Hall.

Another renowned dance drama, Chitrangada, was staged by members of Majlish, a cultural outfit of Bengali speaking employees of Mecon and SAIL units, at Mecon Community Hall.In the coal town, Durga Mandir Religious and Charitable Trust paid tributes to Tagore by garlanding his statue and then hosting a cultural programme in his honour.

Kansari Mandal, president of the Trust, told the gathering, "Tagore's songs, poems, novels, essays and plays inspired people during the freedom struggle.

He not only composed the national anthem of India but also what became the national anthem of Bangladesh."

Pictures by Manob Chowdhary and Gautam Dey