Relatives and dear ones

Tagore's name received unimaginable fame through the length and breadth of the world, while his heart received tremendous blows one after another. How difficult it was for him to put his sufferings aside! His wife expired when she was on the right side of forty, and some of his children died quite young. Moreover, death snatched away some of his devoted young admirers who, he had thought, would add much to the glory of Bengal. Curiously enough, all these bereavements occurred in the course of three successive years. So Tagore once remarked that to live a long life is not at all a blessing.

A memorable event: we all know that Tagore breathed his last on August 7, 1941. In that very year, on May 6, 1941, his 80th birthday had been celebrated all over the world. On this occasion Mahatma Gandhi's greeting ran:

"Four-score is not enough. May you finish five! Love."

Tagore's immediate reply was: "Thank you for your message, but four-score is impertinence. Five-score would be intolerable."