Essay on My Favourite author

Essay on My Favorite Author

I am a voracious reader. I have read many authors, but my favorite author is Rabindranath Tagore, popularly known as “the Shelley of Bengal.”


Tagore was a Ben­gali, but he belongs to the whole world, not to speak of India. He was a universalistic and a humanist through and through.
Tagore was born on May 6, 1861 in Calcutta. He came from a rich family of land­lords. But he had the milk of human kind­ness for the poor and the downtrodden.

Tagore was not sent to any school, he was taught at home. He was a highly preco­cious child. As such, he was capable of learning more from nature and society at large than from any formal education. His responsibilities regarding management of a vast estate enabled him to interact with and get impressions from a large cross-section of humanity. This enabled him to develop a broad outlook with a healthy blend of realis­tic and idealistic strains.
Even while learning at home, Tagore became a scholar at an early age. He had an inborn poetic bent of mind. He began to write in Bengali at an early age and even started a magazine. In his opinion, a child’s first lan­guage should be his mother-tongue in which he could express himself with better felicita­tion.

Tagore was a versatile genius. He was a poet, novelist, dramatist, short-story writer, essayist, actor, musician, painter, cultural leader, religious reformer and even a politi­cal leader to some extent. Above all, he was a patriot, even while being a citizen of the world. His famous novels are “Gore”, “Wreck” etc. But he is most popular for his book: the “Gitanjali”- a book of devotional lyrics in poetic prose. The book won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. He wrote this book in Bengali and then himself translated it into English. Our national anthem “Jana- Gana-Mana” is also the creation of Tagore.

No doubt, Tagore is the greatest poet and writer of modern India. His writings are all highly inspiring and touching. He was honoured by a large number of universities of the world with the honorary doctorate degrees. He was the cultural ambassador of India to the world. His poems in particular have a deep impact on my mind and that is why he is my favorite author.