Class IX Unit II Breaking Barriers - Women (Poem)

Louise Bogan 

He was an American poet. She was appointed the fourth Poet Laureate to the Library of Congress in 1945. Bogan was born in Livermore Falls, Maine, on August 11, 1897 She spent most of her childhood years with her parents and brother growing up in mill towns in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, where she and her family lived in working-class hotels and boardinghouses until 1904.
Bogan was able to attend the Girls’ Latin School for five years, which eventually gave her the opportunity to attend Boston University. She left the university to marry Curt Alexander, a corporal in the U.S. Army, but their marriage ended in 1918. Bogan moved to New York to pursue a career in writing, and their only daughter, Maidie Alexander, was left under the care of Bogan’s parents. After her first husband's death in 1920, she left and spent a few years in Vienna, where she explored her loneliness and her new identity in verse. She returned to New York City and published her first book of poetry, Body of This Death: Poems, in 1923, meeting that year the poet and novelist Raymond Holden. They were married by 1925. Four years later, she published her second book of poetry, Dark Summer: Poems, and shortly after was hired as a poetry editor for The New Yorker. However, the past was repeated and the constant struggle between Holden’s self-indulgence and Bogan’s jealousy resulted in their divorce in 1937.
As poetry editor of The New Yorker magazine for nearly 40 years, Bogan played a major role in shaping mainstream poetic sensibilities of the mid-20th Century.

Class IX Unit II Breaking Barriers - Even Past Fifty (Poem)

Shanta Janardan Shelke

She was a gifted Marathi poetess and writer. Apart from this, she was a journalist, a professor, a composer, a story writer, a translator and  a writer of child literature. 
Some of her compositions became immortal  as songs sung by Marathi greats like Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosale and Kishori Amonkar.
Shanta Shelke was born in Indapur, Pune on October 19,  1922. She was educated in Pune's Sir Parshurambhau College (S. P. College). She completed her M.A. in Marathi and Sanskrit and stood first in Bombay University. During this time, she also won the Na. Chi. Kelkar and Chiplunkar awards.
She spent 5 years working as assistant editor of the weekly Navyug run by Acharya Atre. She then moved to Nagpur to work as a professor of Marathi in Hislop College, Nagpur. She retired after long service from Dayanand College, Mumbai and settled in Pune.
She also served inThe Film Censor Board, The Theatre Examination Board and The Govt. book award. She died on June 6, 2002.

Class X Unit II The World of Mystery- The Blue Bouquet (Short Story)

Octavio Paz 

He was born in 1914 in Mexico City.  Thanks to his grandfather's extensive library, Paz came into early contact with literature. Paz began to write at an early age, and in 1937, he travelled to Valencia, Spain, to participate in the Second International Congress of Anti-Fascist Writers. Upon his return to Mexico in 1938, he became one of the founders of the journal, Taller (Workshop), a magazine which signalled the emergence of a new generation of writers in Mexico as well as a new literary sensibility. He entered the Mexican diplomatic service and was sent to France, where he wrote his fundamental study of Mexican identity, The Labyrinth of Solitude, and actively participated (together with Andre Breton and Benjamin Peret) in various activities and publications organized by the surrealists. In 1962, Paz was appointed Mexican ambassador to India: an important moment in both the poet's life and work, as witnessed in various books written during his stay there, especially, The Grammarian Monkey and East Slope.. In 1980, he was named honorary doctor at Harvard. Recent prizes include the Cervantes award in 1981 - the most important award in the Spanish-speaking world - and the prestigious American Neustadt Prize in 1982.

Class X Unit II The World of Mystery- The Man who Shouted Teresa (Short Story)

Italo Calvino 

He was born on15 October 1923. He  was an Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels. His best known works include the Our Ancestors trilogy (1952–1959), the Cosmicomics, a collection of short stories (1965), and the novels Invisible Cities (1972) and If on a winter's night a traveler (1979). Italo Calvino was born in Santiago de Las Vegas, a suburb of Havana, Cuba in 1923. His father, Mario, was a tropical agronomist and botanist who also taught agriculture and floriculture.Calvino's mother, Eva Mameli, was a botanist and university professor. As an adolescent, he found it hard relating to poverty and the working-class, and was "ill at ease" with his parents’ openness to the laborers who filed into his father's study on Saturdays to receive their weekly paycheck.

Class X Unit I Generations - Once upon a Time (Poem)

Gabriel Okara 

He was born on April 21, 1921, at Bumodi, Nigeria.. A largely self-educated man, Okara became a bookbinder after leaving school and soon began writing plays and features for radio. In 1953 his poem “The Call of the River Nun” won an award at the Nigerian Festival of Arts. Some of his poems were published in the influential periodical Black Orpheus, and by 1960 he was recognized as an accomplished literary craftsman.
Okara incorporated African thought, religion, folklore, and imagery into both his verse and prose. His first novel, The Voice (1964), is a remarkable linguistic experiment in which Okara translated directly from the Ijo (Ijaw) language, imposing Ijo syntax onto English in order to give literal expression to African ideas and imagery. Okara worked in civil service for same years. From 1972 to 1980 he was director of the Rivers State Publishing House in Port Harcourt. His later work includes a collection of poems, The Fisherman’s Invocation (1978), and two books for children, Little Snake and Little Frog (1981) and An Adventure to Juju Island (1992).

Class X Unit I Generations - Games at Twilight (Short Story)

Anita Desai 

She was born in 1935 in Delhi to a German mother and a Bengali father. She married a businessman at twenty-one and raised several children before becoming known for her writing. Her first book, Cry,the Peacock was published in England in 1963, and her better known novels include In Custody (1984) and Baumgartner's Bombay (1988). Desai only writes in English. She is considered the writer who introduced the psychological novel in tthe tradition of Virginia Woolf to India. Included in this, is her pioneer status of writing of feminist issues.
Desai has taught for years at Mount Holyoke and MIT, and spends most of the year outside of India, she does not consider herself part of the Indian Diaspora. Although she does not fit in the Indian box anymore (Griffiths) as she said, she considers herself lucky for having not left India until late in her life, because she feels that she has been drifting away from it ever since: "I can't really write of it with the same intensity and familiarity that I once had." Yet she cannot feel at home in any other place or society (Griffiths).

Class V English Unit-1 When it Rains

Rain, Rain

Rain, rain,

Go away,

Come again

Another day;

Little Johnny

Wants to play.

Down the Rain Falls

Down the rain falls,

Up crackles the fire,

Tick-tock goes the clock

Neither lower nor higher –

Such soft little sounds

As sleepy hens make

When they talk to themselves

For company’s sake.

Rain

The rain is raining all around,

It falls on field and tree,

It rains on the umbrellas here,

And on the ships at sea.

Rain in the Night

Raining , raining,

All night long;

Sometimes loud, sometimes soft,

Just like a song.

There’ll be rivers in the gutters

And lakes along the street.

It will make our lazy kitty

Wash his little dirty feet.

The roses will wear diamonds

Like kings and queens at court;

But the pansies all get muddy

Because they are so-short.

I’ll sail my boat tomorrow

In wonderful new places,

But first I’ll take my watering pot

And wash the pansies’ faces.

Drums of the Rain

The drum is our big windowpane!

The drumsticks are the drops of rain 

Rat-a-tat--tat!Rat-a-tat--tat!

Boom! Boom! Boom!”

The drums, the drums are beating,

And filling all the room!

“Boom, boom, boom!

Rat-a-tat--tat! Rat-a-tat--tat!

Boom!”

The snare drums are the raindrops

That rattle in the room;

The thunder is the big, round drum

That says, “Boom! Boom!”

We’re happy when a rain storm comes,

Because it brings the drums, THE DRUMS!

The Umbrella Bridge
“Pitter patter!” falls the rain
On the schoolroom windowpane.
Such a plashing! such a dashing!
Will it e’er be dry again?
Down the gutter rolls a flood,
And the crossing’s deep in mud,
And the puddles! oh, the puddles
Are a sight to stir one’s blood!

Chorus.
But let it rain
Tree toads and frogs,
Muskets and pitchforks,
Kittens and dogs!
Dash away! plash away!
Who is afraid?
Here we go,
The Umbrella Brigade!

Pull the boots up to the knee!
Tie the hoods on merrily!
Such a hustling! such a jostling!
Out of breath with fun are we.
Clatter, clatter, down the street,
Greeting every one we meet,
With our laughing and our chaffing,
Which the laughing drops repeat.

Chorus.
So let it rain
Tree toads and frogs,
Muskets and pitchforks,
Kittens and dogs!
Dash away! plash away!
Who is afraid?
Here we go,

The Umbrella Brigade!

Singing

Of speckled eggs the birdie sings

And nests among the trees;

The sailor sings of ropes and things

In ships upon the seas.

The children sing in far Japan,

The children sing in Spain;

The organ with the organ man

Is singing in the rain.

1. A flea and a fly flew up in a flue.
Said the flea, “Let us fly!”
Said the fly, “Let us flee!
So they flew through a flaw in the flue.
2. How much wood would a woodchuck chuck
if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
He would chuck, he would, as much as he could,
and chuck as much wood as a woodchuck would if
a woodchuck could chuck wood.
3. Three free throws. 
4. Lily ladles little
Letty’s lentil soup.
5. Six short slow shepherds.
6. I saw Esau kissing Kate. I saw Esau,
he saw me, and she saw I saw Esau
7. The sixth sick sheik’s
sixth sheep’s sick.
8. Six thick thistle sticks.
Six thick thistles stick.
9. Fred fed Ted bread,
and Ted fed Fred bread.
10. A big black bug bit a big
black bear, made the big
black bear bleed blood.
11. One-one was a racehorse.
Two-two was one, too.
When One-One won one race,
Two-Two won one, too.
12. Six sharp smart sharks.
13. Sure the ship’s
shipshape, sir.
14. Six sick slick
slim sycamore saplings
15. She sifted
thistles through
her thistle-sifter.
16. Cows graze in groves
on grass which grows
in grooves in groves. 
17. The soldiers shouldered                      
shooters on their shoulders
18. Red lorry, yellow lorry,
red lorry, yellow lorry.
19. Three grey geese in a green field grazing,
Grey were the geese and green was the
grazing
20. Betty and Bob brought
back blue balloons
from the big bazaar.
21. A pleasant place to place a
plaice is a place where a
plaice is pleased to be placed.

Class VI Unit-1 Sujatha and the Wild Elephant

Sometimes back, there lived a big elephant in a small town. The elephant used to perform puja in front of a temple. Despite his enormous size, he was a very loving creature. 
While going to temple, the elephant had to pass through a busy market place. There a florist would give him a marigold garland everyday, while a fruit seller would offer him fruits. The elephant was very grateful to both of them for these presents. The people in the market place would gather around the elephant and show their affections by patting him gently. 

One day, the florist was in a naughty mood and thought of playing a little joke on the elephant. When the elephant arrived at his shop the next day, as usual, he, instead of offering him a garland, pricked his trunk with a needle, which he used for making garlands. 
The elephant writhed in pain and sat on the ground. Some people gathered around him and began to laugh. 
This made the elephant even more angry.  That day he didn't visit the temple, but instead, went to a nearby dirty pond. He collected some dirty water from the pond in his long trunk and came back to the florist's shop. There he spewed dirty water upon the florist and the garlands and flowers kept in the shop. The florist had to suffer a heavy loss for his mischief.
Moral: Do not expect any good in return of bad.

Class VII English Unit-1The voice of the voiceless:An interview with dileep tirkey

DILIP TIRKEY 
("Dilip") Kumar Tirkey was born on November 24, 1977 in Savnamara near Sundargarh, Orissa. He  belongs to the Oraon tribe of Chota Nagpur. He made his international debut for the Indian national hockey team in 1995 against England in the Indira Gandhi Gold Cup. He has played in three Olympics and is considered as one of the best penalty corner hitters in the world.  Etching the career graph of an Adivasi lad from a remote hamlet of Orissa moving up the social ladder to become the captain of the national hockey team is a fascinating exercise. Tirkey captained the national squad for almost a decade. He's the only Adivasi to represent India in three Olympic Games, starting in 1996. After the 2004 Summer Olympics, where India finished in seventh place, he is playing in the Netherlands, for HC Klein Zwitserland in the highest league named Hoofdklasse, alongside his fellow countryman Gagan Ajit Singh. He is the captain of Orissa Steelers,which won the 3rd Premier Hockey League title of India.  He is the second adivasi leading the national team, and this honour comes to him after a gap of 75 years, the first was Jaipal Singh who led India in India's first hockey Olympics in 1928 at Amsterdam. Tirkey may not be as lucky as Jaipal Singh to have such stalwarts as Dhyan Chand, Penniger and Cullen in the squad, but he has a generous measure of junior talent that won the World Cup at Hobart last year. One of the most talented deep defenders in India, Dilip Tirkey, now, is also one of the most best penalty corner hitters in the world.ing television.

Class VII English Unit-1The voice of the voiceless:A lamp that faced the storm

K. R. NARAYANAN (1920 - 2005)
Kocheril Raman Narayanan , also known as K. R. Narayanan, was the tenth President of the Republic of India. He is the first Dalit and the only Malayali to have been President. Born in Perumthanam, Uzhavoor village, Travancore (present day Kottayam district, Kerala), on October 27, 1920. 
Narayanan had his early schooling in Uzhavoor at the Government Lower Primary School, Kurichithanam (where he enrolled on 5 May 1927) and Our Lady of Lourdes Upper Primary School, Uzhavoor (1931–35). He walked to school for about 15 kilometres daily through paddy fields, and was often unable to pay the modest fees. He often listened to school lessons while standing outside the classroom, having been barred from attending because tuition fees were outstanding. The family lacked money to buy books and his elder brother K. R. Neelakantan, who was confined to home as he was suffering from asthma, used to borrow books from other students, copy them down, and give them to Narayanan. He matriculated from St. Mary's High School, Kuravilangad (1936–37) (he had studied at St. John's High School, Koothattukulam (1935–36) previously). He completed his intermediate at C. M. S. College, Kottayam (1938–40), aided by a scholarship from the Travencore Royal family.
Narayanan obtained his B. A. (Honours) and M.A. in English literature from the University of Travancore (1940–43) (present day University of Kerala), standing first in the university (thus becoming the first Dalit to obtain this degree with first class in Travancore). After a brief stint with journalism and then studying political science at the London School of Economics with the assistance of a scholarship, Narayanan began his 
public service career in India as a member of the Indian Foreign Service under the Nehru administration. He served as ambassador to Japan, United Kingdom, Thailand, Turkey, People's Republic of China and United States of America and was referred by Nehru as "the best diplomat of the country". He entered politics at Indira Gandhi's request and won three successive general elections to the Lok Sabha and served as a Minister of State in the Union Cabinet under former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Elected as Vice-President in 1992, Narayanan went on to become the President of India in 1997. Narayanan is regarded as an independent and assertive President who set several precedents and enlarged the scope of the highest constitutional office. He described himself as a "working President" who worked "within the four corners of the Constitution"; something midway between an "executive President" who has direct power and a "rubber-stamp President" who endorses government decisions without question or deliberation. He used his discretionary powers as a President and deviated from convention and precedent in many situations, the appointment of the Prime Minister in a hung Parliament, in dismissing a state government and imposing President's rule there at the suggestion of the Union Cabinet, and during the Kargil conflict. He presided over the golden jubilee celebrations of Indian independence and in the country's general election of 1998 became the first Indian President to vote when in office, setting another new precedent. K.R. Narayanan passed away on November 9, 2005.

Class VIII Unit-1 On the Wings of Wishes-Dreams

Langston Hughes

James Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry. Hughes is best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance. 

Born-February 1, 1902

Joplin, Missouri

United States

Occupation-poet, columnist, dramatist, 

essayist, lyricist, novelist

Nationality-American

Died-May 22, 1967 (aged 65)

New York City, New York,

He was born in Joplin, Missouri, the second child of school teacher Carrie (Caroline) Mercer Langston and James Nathaniel Hughes (1871–1934). Langston Hughes grew up in a series of Midwestern small towns. Hughes's father left his family and later divorced Carrie, going to Cuba, and then Mexico, seeking to escape the enduring racism in the United States.
After the separation of his parents, while his mother traveled seeking employment, young Langston Hughes was raised mainly by his maternal grandmother, Mary Patterson Langston, in Lawrence, Kansas. Through the black American oral tradition and drawing from the activist experiences of her generation, Mary Langston instilled in her grandson a lasting sense of racial pride. He spent most of his childhood in Lawrence, Kansas. After the death of his grandmother, he went to live with family friends, James and Mary Reed, for two years. In Big Sea he wrote, "I was unhappy for a long time, and very lonesome, living with my grandmother. Then it was that books began to happen to me, and I began to believe in nothing but books and the wonderful world in books — where if people suffered, they suffered in beautiful language, not in monosyllables, as we did in Kansas".
Later, Hughes lived again with his mother Carrie in Lincoln, Illinois. She had remarried when he was still an adolescent, and eventually they lived in Cleveland, Ohio, where he attended high school.
While in grammar school in Lincoln, Hughes was elected class poet. Hughes stated that in retrospect he thought it was because of the stereotype that African Americans have rhythm.
"I was a victim of a stereotype. There were only two of us Negro kids in the whole class and our English teacher was always stressing the importance of rhythm in poetry. Well, everyone knows, except us, that all Negroes have rhythm, so they elected me as class poet."
During high school in Cleveland, he wrote for the school newspaper, edited the yearbook, and began to write his first short stories, poetry, and dramatic plays. His first piece of jazz poetry, "When Sue Wears Red", was written while he was in high school. It was during this time that he discovered his love of books.
On May 22, 1967, Hughes died from complications after abdominal surgery, related to prostate cancer, at the age of 65. His ashes are interred beneath a floor medallion in the middle of the foyer in the Arthur Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. It is the entrance to an auditorium named for him.The design on the floor is an African cosmogram titled Rivers. The title is taken from his poem, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers". Within the center of the cosmogram is the line: "My soul has grown deep like the rivers".

Class VIII Unit-1 On the Wings of Wishes-Coromandel Fishers

Sarojini Naidu

She, also known by the sobriquet The Nightingale of India, was a child prodigy, Indian independence activist and poet. Naidu was one of the framers of the Indian Constitution. Naidu was the first Indian woman to become the President of the Indian National Congress and the first woman to become the Governor of Uttar Pradesh state. Her birthday is celebrated as Women's Day all over India.

Naidu was born in Hyderabad to a Bengali Hindu Kulin Brahmin family to Agorenath Chattopadhyay and Barada Sundari Devi on 13th February 1879. Her father was a doctor of science from Edinburgh University, settled in Hyderabad State, where he founded and administered the Ahemdabad College, which later became the Nizam's College in Ahemdabad. Her mother was a poetess baji and used to write poetry in Bengali. Sarojini Naidu was the eldest among the eight siblings. One of her brothers Birendranath was a revolutionary and her other brother, Harindranath was a poet, dramatist, and actor. 

Sarojini Naidu joined the Indian national movement in the wake of partition of Bengal in 1905. She came into contact with Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Rabindranath Tagore, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Annie Besant, C. P. Ramaswami Iyer, Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru.
During 1915-1918, she traveled to different regions in India delivering lectures on social welfare, women empowerment and nationalism. She awakened the women of India and brought them out of the kitchen. She also helped to establish the Women's Indian Association (WIA) in 1917. She was sent to London along with Annie Besant, President of WIA, to present the case for the women's vote to the Joint Select Committee.
In 1925, Sarojini rNaidu presided over the annual session of Indian National Congress at Cawnpore. In 1929, she presided over East African Indian Congress in South Africa. She was awarded the hind a kesari medal by the British government for her work during the plague epidemic in India. In 1931, she participated in the Round table conference with Gandhiji and Madan Mohan Malaviya.Sarojini Naidu played a leading role during the Civil Disobedience Movement and was jailed along with Gandhiji and other leaders. In 1942, Sarojini Naidu was arrested during the "Quit India" movement. She was a great freedom fighter and an awesome poet.

Sarojini Naidu began writing at the age of 12. Her play, Maher Muneer, impressed the Nawab of Hyderabad. In 1905, her collection of poems, named "The Broken Exes" was published. Her poems were admired by many prominent Indian politicians like Gopal Krishna Gokhale.
During her stay in England, Sarojini met Dr. Govindarajulu Naidu, a non-Brahmin and a doctor by profession, and fell in love with him. After finishing her studies at the age of 19, she got married to him during the time when inter-caste marriages were not allowed. Her father approved the marriage and her marriage was a very happy one.
The couple had five children. Jayasurya, Padmaja, Randheer, Nilawar and Leelamani. Her daughter Padmaja followed in to her footprints and became the Governor of West Bengal. In 1961, she published a collection of poems entitled The Feather of The Dawn. 
In 1949 she fell ill. Her physician came and gave her a sleeping pill for good sleep. She smiled and said "Not eternal sleep I hope". But that night on March 2nd 1949 she died in her sleep.
Works

1.  The Golden Threshold, 
2.  The Bird of Time: Songs of Life, Death & the Spring, 
3.  The Broken Wing: Songs of Love, Death and the Spring, including "The Gift of India" 
4.  Muhammad Jinnah: An Ambassador of Unity
5.  The Sceptred Flute: Songs of India
6.  The Feather of the Dawn, 
7. The Indian Weavers 

Poems

• Damayante to Nala in the Hour of Exile
• Ecstasy
• Indian Dancers
• The Indian Gypsy
• Indian Love-Song
• Indian Weavers
• In Salutation to the Eternal Peace
• In the Forest
• In the Bazaars of Hyderabad
• Leili
• Nightfall in the City of Hyderabad
• Palanquin Bearers
• The Pardah Nashin
• Past and Future
• The Queen's Rival
• The Royal Tombs of Golconda
• The Snake-Charmer
• Song of a Dream
• The Soul's Prayer
• Suttee
• To a Buddha Seated on a Lotus
• To the God of Pain
• Wandering Singers
• Street Cries
• Alabaster
• Autumn Song
• Bangle Sellers
• coramandel fishers etc.

Sarojini Naidu passed away on 2nd March 1949 at the age of 70. Her name is commemorated in the names of the Sarojini Naidu College for Women and Sarojini Naidu Medical College.

Class VIII Unit-1 On the Wings of Wishes-When Wishes Come True

Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Thakura, anglicised to Tagore, sobriquet Gurudev was a Bengali polymath who reshaped his region's literature and music. Author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. In translation his poetry was viewed as spiritual and lively; his seemingly mesmeric personality, flowing hair, and otherworldly dress earned him a prophet-like reputation in the West. His "elegant prose and magical poetry" remain largely unknown outside Bengal. Tagore introduced new prose and verse forms and the use of colloquial language into Bengali literature, thereby freeing it from traditional models based on classical Sanskrit. He was highly influential in introducing the best of Indian culture to the West and vice versa, and he is generally regarded as the outstanding creative artist of modern India.

Born-May 7, 1861

Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British India

Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British India

Occupation-Poet, short-story writer, song composer, 

novelist, playwright, essayist, and painter

Language-Bengali, English

Nationality-India

Notable work(s)-Gitanjali, Gora, Ghare-Baire, Jana Gana Mana, 

Rabindra Sangeet, Amar Shonar Bangla (other works)

Notable award(s)-Nobel Prize in Literature1913

Spouse(s)-Mrinalini Devi (m. 1883–1902)

Children-five children, two of whom died in childhood

Tagore wrote poetry as an eight-year-old. At age sixteen, he released his first substantial poems under the pseudonym Bhanusi?, which were seized upon by literary authorities as long-lost classics. As a humanist, universalist internationalist, and strident anti-nationalist he denounced the Raj and advocated independence from Britain. As an exponent of the Bengal Renaissance, he advanced a vast canon that comprised paintings, sketches and doodles, hundreds of texts, and some two thousand songs; his legacy endures also in the institution he founded, Visva-Bharati University.

Rabindranath Tagore and Jawaharlal Nehru

Tagore modernised Bengali art by spurning rigid classical forms and resisting linguistic strictures. His novels, stories, songs, dance-dramas, and essays spoke to topics political and personal. Gitanjali (Song Offerings), Gora (Fair-Faced), and Ghare-Baire (The Home and the World) are his best-known works, and his verse, short stories, and novels were acclaimed—or panned—for their lyricism, colloquialism, naturalism, and unnatural contemplation. His compositions were chosen by two nations as national anthems: India's Jana Gana Mana and Bangladesh's Amar Shonar Bangla
Poetry

• Bhanusimha Thakurer Padabali (Songs of Bhanusimha Thakur) 1884
• Manasi (The Ideal One) 1890
• Sonar Tari (The Golden Boat) 1894
• Gitanjali (Song Offerings) 1910
• Gitimalya (Wreath of Songs) 1914
• Balaka (The Flight of Cranes) 1916

Dramas

• Valmiki-Pratibha (The Genius of Valmiki)1881
• Visarjan (The Sacrifice)1890
• Raja The King of the Dark Chamber)1910
• Dak Ghar (The Post Office)1912
• Achalayatan (The Immovable) 1912
• Muktadhara (The Waterfall) 1922
• Raktakaravi (Red Oleanders) 1926

Early life of Rabindranath Tagore
The youngest of thirteen surviving children, Tagore was born in the Jorasanko mansion in Calcutta, India to parents Debendranath Tagore (1817–1905) and Sarada Devi (1830–1875). The Tagore family came into prominence during the Bengal Renaissance that started during the age of Hussein Shah (1493 – 1519). The original name of the Tagore family was Banerjee. Being Brahmins , their ancestors were referred to as ‘Thakurmashai’ or ‘Holy Sir’. 
Because Debendranath wanted his son to become a barrister, Tagore enrolled at a public school in Brighton, East Sussex, England in 1878. He stayed for several months at a house that the Tagore family owned near Brighton and Hove, in Medina Villas; in 1877 his nephew and niece—Suren and Indira Devi, the children of Tagore's brother Satyendranath—were sent together with their mother, Tagore's sister-in-law, to live with him. He briefly read law at University College London, but again left school. He opted instead for independent study of Shakespeare, Religio Medici, Coriolanus, and Antony and Cleopatra. Lively English, Irish, and Scottish folk tunes impressed Tagore, whose own tradition of Nidhubabu-authored kirtans and tappas and Brahmo hymnody was subdued. In 1880 he returned to Bengal degree-less, resolving to reconcile European novelty with Brahmo traditions, taking the best from each. In 1883 he married Mrinalini Devi, born Bhabatarini, 1873–1902; they had five children, two of whom died in childhood.
In 1901 Tagore moved to Santiniketan to found an ashram with a marble-floored prayer hall—The Mandir—an experimental school, groves of trees, gardens, a library. There his wife and two of his children died. His father died in 1905. He received monthly payments as part of his inheritance and income from the Maharaja of Tripura, sales of his family's jewelry, his seaside bungalow in Puri, and a derisory 2,000 rupees in book royalties. He gained Bengali and foreign readers alike; he published Naivedya (1901) and Kheya (1906) and translated poems into free verse. In November 1913, Tagore learned he had won that year's Nobel Prize in Literature: the Swedish Academy appreciated the idealistic—and for Westerners—accessible nature of a small body of his translated material focussed on the 1912 Gitanjali: Song Offerings. In 1915, the British Crown granted Tagore a knighthood. He renounced it after the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
In 1921, Tagore and agricultural economist Leonard Elmhirst set up the "Institute for Rural Reconstruction", later renamed Shriniketan or "Abode of Welfare", in Surul, a village near the ashram. With it, Tagore sought to moderate Gandhi's Swaraj protests, which he occasionally blamed for British India's perceived mental—and thus ultimately colonial—decline. He sought aid from donors, officials, and scholars worldwide to "free village[s] from the shackles of helplessness and ignorance" by "vitalis[ing] knowledge". In the early 1930s he targeted ambient "abnormal caste consciousness" and untouchability. He lectured against these, he penned Dalit heroes for his poems and his dramas, and he campaigned—successfully—to open Guruvayoor Temple to Dalits. Tagore passed away on 7th August 1941 at the age of 81.