Tagore at the Traffic Light

Rabindranath Tagore

There is a song on every lip. Well not quite, but if you are lucky to be in Calcutta this time of the year you can hear songs playing at every street corner, at traffic lights to be precise. While this is a smart way to celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath the added decibels at the traffic crossings have begun to prick some eardrums and bump up readings of the crib-o-meter. 

It's not difficult to empathise with the streetside tea shop guy who has to brave endless repeats of a bunch of songs from the Nobel laureate poet's formidable repertoire of more than 2500 -- even the sweetest ballad can be done to death by repetition or a crappy music player going at full blast -- yet on the balance this is a welcome break from the cacophony of the streets. 

A Tagore poster at Mission Row, Calcutta

To those who say that the songs only add to the cacophony, sorry we don't agree. To an arch-romantic like this blogger, and I am sure, to millions of kobita-crazy fellow Kolkatans, the songs of the bard are more balm than bruise when navigating the raucous streets of this city. 

We do feel for the hapless cha-wallah but in a democracy it's numbers that speak and the good of the many will always steal a march over the grief of a few. 

Ludwig van Beethoven

Before Tagore took over the `traffic-music' scene, pedestrians in Calcutta were greeted with a virtuoso burst of Beethoven (Fur Elise) at street crossings, each time the lights changed. Yet it did not ruffle feathers or set on fire newspaper column-centimeters. There is sure a lesson to be learnt there: Let the music play but also grant us breaks from hour to hour and please don't pump up the volume to maximum. It's much more pleasant that way. As for those who would still hold a grudge, we advise them to keep a safe distance from tuneful traffic lights. 
... and quietly on their iPods play:

`Kolahol to baron holo, Ebar kotha kaane kaane

ekhon hobe praner alap, kebolmatro gaane gaane ... '

as many times as their hearts desire.

Copyright notice: Tagore black and white image is from Wikipedia at this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tagore3.jpg (Creative Commons)

Beethoven color image is from wikipedia here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Beethoven.jpg (Creative Commons)

Other images in this post are copyright RajatC