On the writer’s 159th birth anniversary, a much-loved poem of his holds a mirror to our troubled times Rabindranath Tagore was born on 7 May 1861 into a world that had only a foggy understanding of inoculation.
In his time, smallpox wiped out millions, but is now eradicated, thanks to vaccination. Yet, ever new challenges confront us even in the 21st century—as the covid-19 outbreak, with no vaccine against it so far, has shown.
What would Tagore have made of this moment? As a Renaissance man, deeply invested in science and knowledge, he would have marvelled at the advances made by medicine.
In his lifetime, the odds were stacked against humans. In 1902, when the poet’s wife Mrinalini Devi fell mysteriously ill, for instance, doctors