বাংলা 
English 
Rabindranath was a figure known to all in his own time. Especially after winning the Nobel Prize, the poet’s name spread from the subcontinent gradually across the world. In his day many amusing incidents took place centring on Rabindranath.
Some of those incidents are presented here –
On 3 March 1937, at Allahabad, a dispute broke out between two students over the interpretation of a part of one of the poet’s poems. The dispute ended in fisticuffs, and one student’s lip was cut by the other’s bite on the teeth. They were admitted to hospital.
Again, huge crowds thronged everywhere to collect Rabindranath’s autograph. On 11 February 1940 Santiniketan announced that from then on, anyone collecting the poet’s signature would have to donate at least one taka to the fund for helping poor students. This was done largely to protect the poet from needless attacks of the crowd, and partly also to raise money for the poor students’ relief fund through that channel. One taka is not much; so the crowd could not be reduced. On the contrary, the demand for autographs only increased.
In 1939, imitating Rabindranath’s handwriting landed two B.A. examination candidates of the Rabindra-loving Scottish Church College in trouble. They were about to fail the examination. In the supplementary Bengali examination, the examiner, seeing the similar handwriting of both students, grew suspicious. The matter was reported to the Calcutta authorities. After an investigation the authorities withheld the publication of their results, though they did pass. One of the students appeared before the investigation committee and proved that the writing in the examination script was in his own hand. The other student was the secretary of the college’s literary society; he was then in jail in the Satyagraha movement. From the minutes of the society his handwriting showed clearly that the handwriting in the examination script was also his. Later both were passed. So alike was their handwriting that it could be passed off as the poet’s own.
In May 1939, at the prize-giving ceremony of the English high school in Cox’s Bazar, the local police inspector Moulvi Shahabuddin objected to a recitation of Rabindranath’s poem “He Mor Durbhaga Desh”. In his view, the poem was anti-government. But the president of the event, sub-divisional magistrate Salimullah, explained that the poem was included in the textbooks prescribed by the university, and so no kind of objection could arise over it.
An incident of deceiving a Kabuliwala by posing as the poet’s grandson took place in 1939. In court, a Kabuli moneylender named Yusuf Khan complained that a man named Jatindra Mallick used to borrow money from him frequently. He presented another man named Rabindra Mallick as the poet’s grandson Basabendranath Tagore, and showed him the house on Dwarkanath Tagore Lane as his ancestral home. Posing as Rabindra Basab, he borrowed money many times. In the end, both the accused borrowed 450 taka from him after signing with the name Basabendranath. But they never repaid it. On making enquiries he learnt that Rabindra was not the poet’s grandson Basabendranath. Thus he had been deceived. The court sentenced Rabindra and Jatindra to rigorous imprisonment.
Written by: Jafar Wazed
