On this Indian Independence Day, rather than penning more mundane meter, the best tribute to India would be to let the sublime stanzas of this genius – a multi-talented polymath, Nobel Prize in Literature winner, poet, philosopher, composer of national anthems of 2 nations (India and Bangladesh), painter, scholar, administrator, founder of a nature-immersed school (Shantiniketan) and University (Visva-Bharati), man of letters – resoundingly resonate:

Excerpt from Gitanjali – Rabindranath Tagore

“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow
domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary
desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.”

A fitting dream for any nation aspiring to be free or trying to break free from fear.