My Boyhood Days, is Tagore's second memoir of his childhood days,
written when he was nearing eighty. He mentions his early days as being
under 'servocracy', his word for the reign of servants. He describes,
without a trace of self-paty, the Spartan life he had to lead under his
father's instruction. He was a lonely boy and his only playmate was his
own soul. In this atomosphere he found two of the major motives of his
creative life-joy and misery. This sense of wonder and delight in the
seemingly commonplace experiences of boyhood helped him become a great
poet.