Rabindranath Tagore philosopher, visual artist, playwright, composer and novelist. A celebrated cultural icon of Bengal, he became Asia's first Nobel laureate when he won in 1913. Tagore was born in Joranko , Kolkata. A Pirali Bengali Brahmin by birth, Tagore began writing Poems at the age of eight— in 1877  and wrote his first short stories and dramas at age sixteen. His home schooling, life in Shelidah, and extensive travels made Tagore an iconoclast and pragmatist; however, growing disillusionment with the British Raj caused Tagore to back the Indian Independence Movement and befriend Mahatma Gandhi. Despite the loss of virtually his entire family and his regrets regarding Bengal's decline, his life's work  endured. Tagore's major works included Gitajali (Song Offerings), Gora (Fair-Faced), and Ghare Baire(The Home and the World), while his verse, short stories, and novels — many defined by rhythmic lyricism, Colloquial language, meditative naturalism and philosophical contemplation — received worldwide acclaim.