Poetics of playfulness

New Indian Express

08-05-2025

After almost two years of writing a column on traditional games, I circle back to a basic question — Why play? How important is play? The more I research traditional games and the more I understand play, the more I realise how intrinsically interwoven it is with so much of our lives.
Commemorating the birthday of Rabindranath Tagore (May 7), I thought it would be interesting to understand his views on play through his lens. I draw inspiration from two of his works on the subject.
Tagore is perhaps best known across the world for Gitanjali — a collection of poems for which he received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913, for its English translation, Song Offerings, making him the first non-European and the first Asian and the only Indian to receive this honour.
When My Play was with Thee was originally published as Song 97 in the Gitanjali collection. In the poem, the poet tells us about how God used to be his friend and play with him in the jungle. At that time, the poet did not realise who the form was. However, he always considered God his best friend.
This immortal poem of Tagore captures that strong essence of play and the belief that one could in sheer innocence and faith befriend God and play with him as a friend. This idea is echoed in numerous mythological stories and legends across the country.