On 30 May, the United Nations Academic Impact honoured the Nobel laureate, Rabindranath Tagore, whose collection of poetry, Gitanjali, and its universal message of harmony were the focus of an event at UN Headquarters in New York aimed at promoting mutual respect and cross-cultural understanding. Thou hast made me endless, such is thy pleasure. This frail vessel thou emptiest again and again, and fillest it ever with fresh life, sang in Bengali, Rizwana  Chowdhury Bonnya (pictured left), singer and associate professor at Dhaka University, in an interpretive presentation of Tagore's poem: Endless, you have made me.

Hers was one of a dozen lingual expressions of Tagore's poems that included  representatives from Argentina, China, France, Japan and the Republic of Korea, among others. His poems and music are like prayers for one's self- enrichment, purification and salvation, said Vice-President and the Acting President of the General Assembly, Ambassador Abulkalam Abdul Momen of Bangladesh. Ambassador Momen praised Tagore as a role model: His firm stance against communalism and all forms of fanaticism serves us as a constant reminder of the need to remain vigilant and united in our total rejection of all forms of violence, bigotry and injustice.

Tagore was honoured with the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913, the first for an Asian poet. The Nobel was presented for lasting literary merit and for evidence of consistent idealism. At the time of his selection, the Nobel committee praised Tagore's profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse, by which, with consummate
skill, he has made his poetic thought, expressed in his own English words, a part of the literature of the West.

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy, Ambassador Momen said quoting Tagore. In addition to artistic endeavours, Tagore started the Visva-Bharati University in the town of Shantiniketan in India which he described as his life's work.

Ambassador Momen said, Instead of any clash of civilizations, it was to be a place where students and teachers from the East and the West would sit together and learn from each other in a common pursuit of  truth.

The meeting was also addressed by the Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations Ambassador Asoke Mukerji, who recalled the story of Gitanjali and its first publication by The India Society in London in 1912. Author and poet Aftab Seth, and Meena Alexander, also a distinguished poet and a professor at New York's Hunter College, spoke about Tagore's poetry and his message to the world.

Tagore's poems in various languages were introduced by actor and author Madhur Jaffrey, Guillaume Dabouis of the Permanent Mission of France, Hisao Nishimaki of the Permanent Mission of Japan, filmmaker and producer Sunmin Park of the Republic of Korea, Professor Kanwarjit Singh of the University of  Washington and Yiling Li of the People's Republic of China.

The Tagore event was part of UNAI's ongoing series, Unlearning Intolerance which brings together diplomats, international experts and representatives of academic institutions to exchange ideas with senior UN officials. An archival video of the event can be found here as well as photos on the UNAI Facebook page.