Ambassador Shri Harsh Jain visited Ust-Kamenogorsk in East Kazakhstan Region on May 16-17, 2016 at the invitation of Director of the East Kazakhstan Regional Architectural Ethnographic and Landscape Reserve Museum Mr. Nikolai Alexeevich Zaitsev to participate in the 155th birth anniversary of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore.

Ambassador addressed the guests and garlanded the bust (installed in October, 2009) of Rabindranath Tagore at Ethnopark “Zhastar”. In his address, Ambassador stated that Rabindranath Tagore was a multifaceted genius, a highly talented personality, an eminent poet and writer, visual artist, musician and philosopher but above all a humanist. He underscored that Gurudev’s works were inspired by his quest for inner truth and a sense of solidarity that transcends borders and breaks down barriers of religion, race or language. He stated that Rabindranath Tagore’s poetic endeavor, Gitanjali, won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913, which made him the first Asian to receive that prestigious award.

Ambassador highlighted that Rabindranath Tagore has a unique distinction of being the composer of national anthems of three countries saying that his compositions ‘Jana Gana Mana’ and ‘Amar Shonar Bangla’ are the national anthems of India and Bangladesh respectively and the Sinhalese translation of a song written by him in Bengali is the national anthem of Sri Lanka.

He informed that the first Russian language translation of Tagore’s poem Gitanjali was made in 1917 by Ivan Bunin who himself later became the first Russian Noble Laureate in literature, while the credit for translating the works of Tagore into Kazakh language goes to gifted writer and poet Aubakir Nilibayev, who was awarded Padma Shri by Government of India in 2004. He spoke about the deep-rooted, historical and cultural linkages between India and Kazakhstan as well as the friendly relations between India and East Kazakhstan region in particular.

Regional Head of Culture, Archives and Documentation Division Ms. R.K. Nurmukhanova also spoke on the occasion and paid floral tribute to Rabindranath Tagore. Ambassador gave prizes to Ms. Bayan Tursunova, Ms. Kamila Buketova and Ms. Kaziza Dauletbekova of East Kazakhstan State University who won the essay competition on life and works of Rabindranath Tagore. An Indian tea festival was organized where the preparation of tea was demonstrated. Over 1000 people sampled the Indian tea. Members of ISKCON presented vedic bhajan and dance performance at the Palace of Indian Raja, a part of the museum complex. Creative Cultural Groups of the city presented cultural programme at the festive concert in the evening. Yoga Instructor and Kathak Dance Teacher from Indian Cultural Centre, Nur-Sultan conducted master classes of yoga and kathak dance respectively.