'Tagore considered death a sequential journey'

For over three decades, Mita Haq has been enthralling audiences with her rendition of Tagore songs. Born in 1962, Mita Haq received training from maestros such as late Waheedul Haq, Dr. Sanjida Khatun and Ustad Mohammad Hossain Khan. She has 14 solo musical albums released from HMV and Visva Bharati Music Board, India, and 10 released in Bangladesh.

She is the founding director and teacher of music training and performance group, "Shurotirtha" and is the head of the Department of Rabindra Sangeet at Chhayanaut in Dhaka. She is also the former general secretary and incumbent vice-president of Rabindra Sangeet Sammilan Parishad.

In a recent conversation with The Daily Star, the noted artiste talks about Rabindranath Tagore's visions, philosophy of death and other aspects ahead of the bard's 75th death anniversary. Excerpts: 

 "Rabindranath Tagore is a poet of our language. His poems and songs broadly deal with our social and national life, the essence of our culture. The different parjaya of Tagore songs – Prakriti, Prem, Pooja, Swadesh and Bichitra -- evoke the beauty of rhythm and melody. As we see and feel the changing courses of nature with the onset of six seasons, we celebrate various moods and moments of life with his melodic compositions."

 "The unparallel imagery of monsoonal fresh greenery and portrayal of floral images stir up our strong internal feelings. Bangalee's deep feelings of nationalism, the core values of our solemn faith and patriotism have been depicted in the poems and songs of Swadesh Parjaya. His Pooja Parjaya songs represent humanly love together with the grave homage to the Lord."

 "Tagore's thoughts on death are beautiful. For him, death is never an end of life. It is a sequential journey of life through which one part of life ends. Tagore thought of death as two edges of a river. He would always regard death as a normal course of life. He said goodbye to many of his near and dear ones during his lifetime. In his creation 'Bhanushingher Padabali', Tagore describes many things like joys and sorrows of life leaving us away, but never death. Thus, he fondly utters 'Moron Rey Tuhu Momo Shyam Shoman'."   

"Besides, Tagore would think of agriculture, cooperative and other initiatives for the betterment of lives of the people of Bangladesh. The poet had the heart to embrace people of all strata and classes. He taught us to shake off all the superstitions and take the part of liberalism that ultimately helps build a better society."