A Fictional conversation with ABANINDRANATH TAGORE ?
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Answer:
In My Reminiscences (1917), the English version of his Bengali memoir Jibansmriti (1912), Tagore tells us that he grew up during an era when “majlis was a necessity, and those who could contribute to it were in much demand”.
My Reminiscences provides a lively account of how, during those formative years of Tagore’s life, conversations with his brother Jyotirindranath, sister-in-law Kadambari Devi, and family friends such as the poet Biharilal Chakravarti helped shape his literary creativity.
He nostalgically revisits his memories of the jovial sociability that characterised that milieu ~ “What comings and goings we used to see: how merry were the rooms and verandahs with the hum of conversation and the snatches of laughter!”
Significantly, his evocation of that era is prompted by the awareness that such sociability has become a thing of the past. He mourns the decline of that social ethos which, he points out, has been replaced by a utilitarian outlook ~ “We no longer have the thing called a majlis. We still meet for business or for politics but never for the pleasure of simply being together I can imagine few things more ugly than this social miserliness.” This awareness was linked to his belief that in India colonial rule had introduced an urban modernity dominated by greed and selfishness.
The informal clubs established by Tagore and other members of his family served as social spaces where friends could gather and talk. In his memoir On the Edges of Time (1958) Tagore’s son Rathindranath writes that at the dinner parties hosted by the Kham-Kheyali Sabha “what was most enjoyable was the brilliant and witty conversation that took place”.