Gurudev goldmine at V-B waits to be unearthed

KOLKATA: Tagore has mentioned several dates along with his corrections, new additions and other scribblings along the margin of his personal copy of ‘Lekhan’. The last such date was 1938, which is scribbled below a the sketch of a human face behind a veil.
Take this poem - In the dark, when brother fails to see his brother.....he is blinded to his own true self.This poem, known among Tagore scholars as an autograph poem, was not there in the original collection of poems.
Again, perhaps unhappy with the poem, There are seekers of wisdom and seekers of wealth, Tagore has striken it off completely, not caring to even modify it. There are 27 poems where the poet had done minor modifications.
"I was stunned when I leafed through Tagore’s personal copy of Lekhan, the first time I saw it. It was full of Tagore’s scribblings showing clearly that he had wanted to publish this new version of the book. For some unknown reason that had never happened. Soon it was decided that a new edition of Lekhan would be published, with all the modifications in Tagore’s own hand," said Nilanjan Bandopadhyay, Tagore scholar and special officer of VBU’s Rabindra Bhavan.
Tagore expert, Amitrasudan Bhattacharya, who had taught in VBU for nearly four decades felt that the discovery of this copy of Lekhan clearly shows that the university is a treasure trove of unpublished Tagore works.
"Scholars working here should be encouraged to look through these and discover further," Bhattacharya said.
VBU vice chancellor, Rajat Ray said, "I am yet to see this version of Lekhan. Any discovery of original Tagore sends ripples across the country and indeed it is apt that the book is getting published on his 150th year."