India’s Ambassador Her Excellency M. Subashini yesterday joined AlphaMax Academy students, teachers, staff and administrators in celebrating the Birth Anniversary of India’s most internationally celebrated poet Rabindranath Tagore, who was born on May 7th, 1861.
The morning ceremony featured a bust-garlanding ceremony on the lawns of the Academy where the impressive Tagore monument stands between two flamboyant trees. There students joined teachers and staff in reciting Tagore’s famous poem “Where the mind is without fear/And the head is held high…”
Following the garlanding event, there was a special cultural program featuring performances by students and friends of the Academy. The program consisted of dance, poetry, and songs – many created by Tagore.
A special fusion arrangement by Kumar Joshi and Ivor Mitchell of Tagore’s “Don’t be afraid! Walk alone” captivated the audience. Tagore, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913, wrote this song to inspire nationalists during India’s freedom struggle against the British. Indian national and television English presenter, Kris DCosta, read the Tagore poem in Bengali and English before the chorus was sung in English to the fusion arrangement for solo singer and background vocals.
In 2011, Suriname was one of 14 countries worldwide where the Rabindranath Tagore bust was installed. The 250 kilogram bronze bust was unveiled on June 4th in the garden of the AlphaMax Academy by Suriname’s First Lady Mrs Ingrid Bouterse-Waldring and the then Ambassador of India, K.J.S. Sodhi.
AlphaMax Academy champions the values and approaches of Rabindranath Tagore on account of his deep love for nature, his emphasis on creativity, and his insistence that students learn best when in close contact with beautiful natural surroundings. Outside of his international acclaim as an artist, Tagore established two famous institutions of learning in India: the Santiniketan school for children, and the Viswa Bharati University for International Cultural Studies.
