FREEDOM

-Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore, (born May 7, 1861, Calcutta [now Kolkata], India—

died August 7, 1941, Calcutta), Bengali poet, short-story
writer, song composer, playwright, essayist, and painter who introduced new
prose and verse forms and the use of colloquial language into Bengali
literature, thereby freeing it from traditional models based on
classical Sanskrit. He is generally regarded as the outstanding creative artist
of early 20th-century India. In 1913 he became the first non-European to
receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Theme of the poem

1. Sense of nation:

– Inaction arises from fear: people afraid of rebellion

– People lie in passive subjugation – no resistance against British

– Clouded judgment and insecurity – caused by fear

– Destiny that will bring it to ruin

2. National identity:

– Poet’s individual identity fused with that of the community’s greater

identity

– Desperation to bring forth change: cannot stand and watch injustices

– Nation annexed to another nation: sovereignty clashes

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 In the poem “Freedom” Rabindranath Tagore an acclaimed Indian writer and the
winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 expresses his wishes and vision for
his motherland, India. He supported Indian independence from Britain and desired
the end of the British Raj, which is the subject of "Freedom."

The first wish he has for India is the wish of freedom from fear. He believes fear of
his countrymen is responsible for her plight of slavery. In the first two lines of the
poem, he refers to India as the "motherland" and states that he wants India to be
free from fear. His use of alliteration, or repetition of the "f" sound in the words
"freedom," "from," "fear," and "freedom" again in the first line, emphasizes the
urgency of his call for Indian independence. The word "freedom" is repeated
throughout the poem to express the poet's deep wish for his country to be
independent.

The second wish he has for his motherland is the freedom from the burden of
sense-less, illogical, and orthodox beliefs and traditions which don’t let her see the
future. In the third line, he builds on the image of India as an aging mother, and he
wants her to be free from the "burden of the ages," which refers to the yoke of
English control of India. The aged woman who represents India bends her head,
bends her back, and blinds her eyes under the burden of colonialism. These lines
also use alliteration with the repetition of the "b" sound. Tagore speaks of the way
in which India does not see the future or imagine a brighter future for herself by
blinding her eyes. Instead of looking forward, India sleeps with what Tagore calls
"shackles of slumber," or time spent not thinking of her future. Instead, India is
fastening herself "in night's stillness," meaning that the country is committed to the
past and to the current situation of colonialism. The country "mistrusts the star that
speaks of truth's adventurous paths," meaning that the country does not look

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 around in its dark time (represented by night) and imagine a brighter future for
itself as independent.

His third wish for India is to break free of her fear of taking risks; he wants her
motherland to dare to walk on the adventurous path; he also wants her not to trust
so much in the uncertain destiny; nor allow the control of her forward movement in
the hands of narrow-minded and heartless people.

His last wish for her motherland is the freedom from humiliation of living as slave
in the hands of foreign invaders. When Tagore asks for "freedom from the anarchy
of destiny," he means that he doesn't want his country to just blindly and passively
follow the fate that has been given to it, and he compares this fate, or destiny, to a
sailboat that has to follow winds that are blowing in every direction and that is
captained by an uncaring hand. This is a metaphor in which his country is
compared to a sailboat following uncertain winds with an uncaring person at the
helm.

He wants her to stop living like a puppet whose each and every movement is
governed and controlled by the master of the show. He wishes for her motherland
to live freely, taking her own decisions and creating her own future. Then, Tagore
asks for freedom from India living in a "puppet's world," by which he means a
world in which India is controlled by other countries and forces as a puppet is
controlled by a puppeteer. The movements are orchestrated through "brainless
wires," meaning that England controls India without thinking and by following
"mindless habits," meaning customs that are followed without reason. In this
extended metaphor comparing India to a puppet show, figures, who are clearly
Indians, wait obediently just to follow the master of the show, meaning their
English rulers. Therefore, the Indians live "a mimicry of life," meaning an
inauthentic life controlled by others.

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 A CUT ABOVE

- Meena Bindra

Indian ethnic apparels maker Meena Bindra was born in Delhi with a family of six
siblings. Despite being a late bloomer and with several factors working against her,
Bindra took the plunge and kept up a steady pace, giving wings to her business
stitch by stitch, client by client, and brick by brick. Meena’s father was a business
man and passed away when she was only nine years old However, he left behind a
lot of property which provided her mother a lot of aid to give them a normal
childhood. She was married at the age of nineteen years old when she completed
her BA. As she was married to naval officer she moved all over the country with
her husband and was busy looking after her home and family for the first twenty
years. She didn’t quite know how to sew a button on fabric until she was 38. Yet,
what she lacked in training and experience she made up through her self-learned
couture sensibilities, all of which prompted her to start a business from home in
1985.

Bindra started out without any grand plan or support except the ambition to remain
independent in life, although things kept falling in place for her and she gladly
accepted what came her way. She borrowed a loan of eight thousand rupees and
started her business and through trial and error, Meena put together 40 salwar suits
and the first sale resulted in a small profit of 3000. At the Bindra residence, she
managed all the affairs of the house, both before and after her foray into the
business arena. By the end of the year Meena had three tailors doing jobwork and
started getting enquiries from retailers like Benzer and Sheetal . Since the supplies
became more she decided on a name for the bill book called “BIBA”. After three
years into business Meena moved into a 1000sq. ft office at Kemp’s corner.
Around this time Meena’s elder son, Sanjay, completed his BCom and joined the
business. He took over the boring side of the business handling the labour, taking
orders, keeping accounts. For the next few years BIBA grew into a steady pace and

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 gave rise to more outlets al over India. By 1993, BIBA had become one of India’s
largest ethnic-wear wholesalers, selling 1000-2000 pieces every month. The annual
turn at that time over was around two crores. Meanwhile by mid 90’s the advent of
India’s first multi-city department store shoppers stop approached BIBA for the
ladies ethnic wear and so in the process Meena was forced to become more
professional to stand by the commitments and deliver on time. Advance planning,
control systems and quality checks helped tailors become more efficient and there
was a measure of accountability. According to Meena working with limitations
and yet going beyond limits is the true test of any entrepreneur and so by the year
2000 production of BIBA had scaled up to 5000 pieces per month and was able to
manage cash flows without ban limits or overdrafts.
The turning point for BIBA came when her younger son Sanjay joined the
company. BIBA opened its first company owned in 2004 at In Orbit and CR2
malls in Mumbai that resulted in the annual income of 12-15 lakh per month, the
whole company was restructured and in 2006 Kishore Biyani bought a 10% stake
in BIBA for 110 crores. In March 2012, BIBA’S annual revenues stood at 300
crores with 90 company-owned outlets contributing 50% of sales. The company
continued to outsource manufacturing, but employs around 1000 people in
supervisory roles and or retail sales. With her sons Meena had a clear demarcation
of boundaries. Yet there was argument and friction. There were differences on how
to take the business forward and so they decided to work separately. In 2010
Sanjay sold his stake and started a new ethnic-wear label called ‘Seven East’.
Meena believes that energy is the force which moves mountains and working
mothers and woman can be a wife, a mother and an entrepreneur and so she
advises to live a dream and have it all. Today, at 71 years of age, Bindra is more
satisfied with life than she has ever been. Yet, she is brimming with the same level
of enthusiasm as when she started out 30 years ago. She has worn many hats in her
life so far. In a span of three decades, she went from being a housewife and mother
to selling Indian salwar-suits from home, from becoming a supplier to retailers to
setting up her own ethnic apparel retail chain brand BIBA, which is now a
household name.