The award of the 2021 Nobel prize in literature to Abdulrazak Gurnah, a writer originally from East Africa who writes in English about the ongoing legacy of colonialism, presents an interesting counterpoint to Bharati's own "Reflections" on the first Asian Nobel prize winner and, to date, India's only laureate in literature: Rabindranath Tagore. In this essay, Bharati writes about Tagore's travel to Japan and his reception in that country. He exhorts the Indian press to do more to publicize the exploits of great Indians, and urges all Indians to be inspired to new heights of achievement by their deeds. Expanding his perspective on India to the world at large, he writes of the "contagion of greatness" and of the ever present, sometimes surprising possibility of touching genius - a novel and refreshing idea for our own jaded times.

This episode features an exquisite Japanese koto performance by  Reiko Kimura. Percussion by tabla maestro Bickram Ghosh and ghatam maestro V. Suresh in a spectacular "jugalbandhi" brings together North and South Indian classical traditions, symbolizing Indian cultural unity.

Executive Producer and Host: Mira T. Sundara Rajan

Engineer: Emma Markowitz

Producer: Bradley W. Vines

Music Credits:

Reiko Kimura, Music From Japan / Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.

Reiko Kimura's koto performance was recorded at the Freer Gallery on January 15, 1998 and presented by Music from Japan. The full concert and detailed program notes are available on the website of the National Museum of Asian Art (Smithsonian).

Drums of India, Bickram Ghosh on Tabla and V. Suresh On Ghatam. Subscribe to Bickram Ghosh's youtube channel.