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Tagore's stories in more languages soon

By Marcus Dam

KOLKATA, FEB. 29. The Vishwa Bharati University will bring out translations of Rabindranath Tagore's selected short stories and essays in Sinhalese, Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi and Marathi.

The services of a Delhi-based publisher have been sought for the job.

Speaking to The Hindu here, the university's Vice-Chancellor, Sujit Kumar Basu, said that a board of editors will be appointed by the university to ``preserve'' the originality in the translations. Work will begin within the next three months. Translations of some of the poet's songs in Hindi, with notations, have already been published and the authorities are thinking of similar publications in other languages too.

Dr. Basu said that the authorities were taking steps to open up the university to a larger number of foreign students. They were looking at students from the Middle East and Africa for enrolment in degree courses.

``By the next year, the number of foreign students in the university should have trebled from the present 150.''

The move is in keeping with Tagore's dream of making Vishwa Bharati ``a place where the whole world should meet in a single nest,'' Dr Basu added. The university has nearly 6,500 students.

The Vishwa Bharati has reached an arrangement with the University of California, Berkley, where a Bangla language course is to be introduced this year. Under the programme, students from that university will participate in annual semesters at the Vishwa Bharati, where they will be offered three courses — Bangla language, the fine arts and local culture. A similar arrangement is being worked out with the Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Vishwa Bharati is one out of 26 Indian universities selected by the University Grants Commission (UGC) for its unique ``Export of India's Higher Education Abroad'' project.

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