National Anthem at Dublin
Caroline,
the elderly, knowledgeable and affable guide began the city tour of Dublin by
taking the Indian guests to St. Stephen’s Green, not to a random area of the 27-acre
sculpted Victorian park, but to the zone where the bust of Tagore could be seen
minutes after entry. She possibly led local or English tourists to the ‘Great
Famine’ sculpture instead. Customised tour for tourists!
India had
named in 2007 a street at Chanakya Puri, New Delhi after Eamon de Valera, Ireland’s
beloved revolutionary leader who was Prime Minister for 21 years, and President
for 14 years. Tagore Bust at St. Stephen’s Green Park had been installed in 2011
as a reciprocal gesture.
Rabindranath
Tagore had visited England and Ireland in 1912 and had met among other leading literary
figures W.B. Yeats who was instrumental in introducing Tagore to Europe and the
world. In his effusive ‘Introduction’ to the prose translation of Gitanjali
(Song Offerings) by Tagore himself, Yeats had said,
“I have
carried the manuscript of these translations about with me for days, reading it
in railway trains, or on the top of omnibuses and in restaurants, and I have
often had to close it lest some stranger would see how much it moved me.”
Yeats had
ended his introduction with what Tagore had said about children: “They build
their houses with sand and they play with empty shells. With withered leaves
they weave their boats and smilingly float them on the vast deep. Children have
their play on the seashore of worlds. They know not how to swim, they know not
how to cast nets. Pearl fishers dive for pearls, merchants sail in their ships,
while children gather pebbles and scatter them again. They seek not for hidden
treasures, they know not how to cast nets.”[i]
Yeats had quoted
from Song 60 of Gitanjali, though ‘Where the Mind is Without Fear’ (Song 35),
is possibly more well-known.
Tagore was
the first non-European to win the Nobel for literature in 1913. Yeats won the
Nobel in 1923.
When like
all eager tourists most of the group scattered at once and rushed ahead to
select their favourite spots for selfie, couple, or family photos; Caroline
gently beckoned the group, with the quiet efficiency of a kindly, veteran
school teacher, to assemble near the Tagore Bust for a group photograph. Lo and
behold, everyone gathered there in a minute, and she happily clicked the photo
to be shared with the group.
Before the assembly
could disperse for ad hoc exploration of the park, she mentioned ever so gently
and with a charming smile: Many Indian groups have sung the National Anthem
here. That was the little nudge that led the holidayers to stand to attention
and sing the National Anthem at 9.30 AM on a cloudy and slightly chilly spring
morning. They did not sing in sync, some finished earlier and others later than
the 52 seconds mandated for correct singing of the full anthem; but the near-spontaneous
act of patriotism on foreign soil was the icing on top of their holiday cake.
Tagore had
written Jana Gana Mana on 11 December 1911, coronation of King George V
was held at Delhi Durbar on 12 December 1911, and the song had been sung for
the first time at the Indian National Congress Annual Meet at Calcutta on 27 December
1911 by Sarala Devi Chowdhurani, the poet’s niece. Tagore, in a letter to Pulin
Bihari Sen in 1938 had rubbished the misconception that he had written the song
for George V for the King’s Delhi Coronation in 1911:
‘…. I
pronounced the victory in Jana Gana Mana of that Bhagya Vidhata [ed. God of
Destiny] of India who has from age after age held steadfast the reins of
India's chariot through rise and fall, through the straight path and the
curved. That Lord of Destiny, that Reader of the Collective Mind of India, that
Perennial Guide, could never be George V, George VI, or any other George….’[ii]
Jana Gana Mana was composed by Tagore in five stanzas of which the first stanza was adopted as India’s National Anthem. The full text of the original song along with English translation is available at lyricsdna.com.
A few days
earlier, the same group of tourists had visited the Parliament Square at London,
and several members had clicked a few photos of self or family with the statue
of Mahatma Gandhi in the background; but there was no Caroline to herd them in
front of Gandhi to sing the National Anthem!
Why did your
PM resign, asked a tourist? Leo Varadkar had resigned on 20 March 2024.
‘He was an
efficient Prime Minister, deftly managed the pandemic crisis, and even was
available for consultation to the public in his capacity as a General
Practitioner. He was candid about his resignation, “I am a little tired, and no
longer able to achieve what I think is achievable and necessary for our country.
It’s best that I resign.”
He is honest
and frank, and we love that about him. He is gay and came out on National TV even
before same-sex marriage was legalised. You might be aware that Oscar Wilde, a
famous Dubliner was jailed for homosexuality.’
The guide
did not mention that Leo had resigned owing to his party’s defeat in a national
referendum on two policy reform issues pertaining to the definition of family
and the role of women. Why bother the holidayers with boring domestic politics?
Leo Varadkar, son of an Indian doctor and an Irish nurse, became Ireland’s youngest Prime Minister in June 2017. That was before Kamala Harris became Vice President of the US in 2021, and Rishi Sunak the PM of UK in 2022!
Responding to his election as party leader,
Varadkar had said,
‘I know when
my father travelled 5,000 miles to build a new home in Ireland, I doubt that he
ever dreamed that one day his son would grow up to be its leader and despite
his differences, his son would be judged by his actions not his identity….Every
proud parent in Ireland today can dream big dreams for their children.’[iii]
Ireland is
among the countries with a high percentage of immigrant population (18%).
Earlier, as
Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, ‘he oversaw “the Gathering,” a
nationwide initiative in 2013 to revive tourism in Ireland with the staging of
some 5,000 special events celebrating Irish culture and aimed at attracting
members of the global Irish diaspora and other visitors to Ireland. During
Varadkar’s ministerial tenure, the number of international visitors to Ireland
increased by about one million per year.’
In the
afternoon, on way to Guinness, someone asked Caroline, ‘Is Scotch superior to
Irish whiskey?’
No way. We
invented whiskey. In fact, the word whiskey derives from Old Irish words uisce
(water) and bethu (life) meaning ‘water of life.’
Isn’t
Scotland the largest exporter of whiskey in the world?
So what,
that doesn’t make Scotch better? Which is your favourite whiskey, she asked?
The curious one was a teetotaller!
At Guinness
you’d learn all about the origin of whiskey and also sample the famed Guinness
beer. Later at Grafton Street, you may buy a coffee at Butlers, the most famous
chocolatier of Ireland, established in 1932, for a complimentary cube of Irish
whiskey chocolate to pair with your coffee.
***
Comments
Dev Vardhan, my friend who lives in Chicago
My Reply
[ii] (National
Anthem of India (Jana Gana Mana) - Lyrics, Translation, Meaning & History -
An Essay (culturalindia.net)
[iii] Encyclopaedia
Britannica
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