Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:
Rabindranath Thakur was born in Calcutta on May 7, 1861. His father Devendranath Thakur, was a well-known social and religious leader and was called Maharishi Devendranth, though a religious leader. Devendranath was very broad-minded and he encouraged his son to think independently.
In school, Rabindranath found the teaching too elementary. It did not take his teacher long to recognise his high intelligence. He was given 'Macbeth' to translate and to everyone's surprise Rabindranath made a very good translation into Bengali. However, his limitless curiosity to know more and newer things could not be satisfied in school. It was, therefore, decided to withdraw him from there. For four years, from the age of thirteen to seventeen, he studied a wide variety of subjects at home. About the same time he was drawn to Nature and Arts. For hours he would go swimming in the Ganga and watch the changing moods of the mighty river. He also started composing verses and learning music.
From 1881 onwards his talent as a writer expressed itself in the form of countless compositions in poetry, drama, prose, music, fiction, philosophy and painting. He wrote nearly 50 plays, 100 books of verse and 40 volumes of fiction and philosophical writings.
Rabindranath was also a great educationist. In 1901, he founded a school at Shantiniketan near Bolpur in Bengal. Situated in the midst of natural surroundings, it soon started attracting students from all over the country and even from outside India. In 1922 it was changed into an international university called Vishva-Bharati, the name it continues to have to this day.
The work which brought him universal recognition was a collection of poems named 'Gitanjali'. Originally written in Bengali, it was translated into English by Rabindranath himself. This won him in 1913 the Nobel Prize in Literature and made him internationally famous.
Rabindranath was a great nationalist and patriot. He felt so bitter about the Jallianwala Bagh tragedy in 1919 that as a protest, he gave up Knighthood which the British had awarded him earlier. But his nationalism was not based on any narrow loyalties. It was a part of his wider vision of internationalism and world brotherhood.
He died on August 07, 1941, four years before the founding of the U.N.O. and six years before the coming of Indian independence. Tough he is no more, his message of universal peace and love among mankind will continue to inspire many generations to come.
1. Why did Rabindranath give up the title of Knighthood ?
2. When and where was he born ?
3. Which book of him won him the Nobel prize in Literature ?
4. Who was famous as 'Maharshi' ?
5. How does Rabindranath still inspire the generations to come ?
6. Why was Rabindranath not educated at school ?
7. Freedom
8. Easy, not complicated.
9. A piece of poetry.
