Our culture of music, art and literature never make us forget or overlook treasures from the past which remain truly ageless. Among many others, one iconic song that has held centre-stage after more than a century is ‘Ekla Chôlo Re’. It is a Bengali patriotic song written by Rabindranath Tagore in 1905 but though the lyrics are in that language it has had great universal appeal. As an inspirational ‘tagline’ it’s widely used by motivational speakers and is often quoted in the context of socio-political change movements and was a favourite of the Mahatma !
The song has a fascinating history and has been the subject of research of Gurudev’s immense body of work. Originally titled as “EKLA”, this most uplifting song was first published in September 1905 issue of Bhandar magazine & was influenced by a popular Bengali Kirtan song. Like many of his legendary songs, ‘Ekla Cholo’ has had renditions not only from leading exponents of ‘Rabindra Sangeet’ like Suchitra Mitra and Hemanta Mukherji but also by greats like Kishore da, who trained to sing in this genre. Bollywood too was not to be left behind – In 2004, it’s tune was used with Hindi lyrics composed by A.R Rahman and sung by Sonu Nigam in ‘Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero’. In the celebrated ‘2012’ film ‘Vidya Balan’ starrer ‘Kahaani’, it is sung by Big B, under music direction of Vishal-Shekhar.
What do the words of the song mean ? A beautiful English translation by Sumona Roy :-
‘If they pay no heed to your call
Walk on your own.Walk alone,
Walk alone, walk alone, walk all alone.
If none speaks, o wretched one,
If all turn their face away & cower in silence
Then open out your heart
Dear one, speak out your mind, voice alone.
If everyone spurns, o wretched one
If all leave you in the lurch in wilderness
Then trample the trail of thorns
With blood stained feet alone, on your own.
If no one holds up a light, o wretched one
And bolts the doors in dark, stormy night
Then in the lightning fire of pain
Kindle your own heart and
Keep it burning bright alone.’
Working on Living 