25 January in a span of 100 – 150 years saw birth of Four (4) well acclaimed Poet / Novelist / Author in a great coincidence.

Robert Burns (1759 – 1796, 37 Years) – The famous Scottish Poet who is being undoubtedly called as the National Poet of Scotland for his wonderful pieces on various aspects including love & romance. Struggled for the entire life, Burns still somehow managed to pen some classics & sonnets to be remembered centuries after. So popular he was, “Burns Supper” has become a common manifesto every year on his birthday. The son of the soil, Robert Burns will be alive for more centuries through the pieces like “A Sonnet upon Sonnets”, “To a Mouse”, “A Red, Red Rose”, “Epitaph on my Own Friend”, “O, Wert Thou in the Cauld Blast” and many more.

 Somerset Maugham (1874 – 1965, 91 Years) – The king of short stories, William Somerset Maugham was a trained and qualified Doctor before a full fledged writer. A British, who not only served for Red Cross in the First World War, Maugham  was a member of British Secret Intelligence Service too. Equally brilliant in writing heart touching Novels like “The making of a Saint”, “The Magician” or “Catalina”, Somerset Maugham was more famous for his collection of short stories, “Encore”, “Trio”, “The Unconquered”, “Cosmopolitans”, “Ah King” and so many.

 Virginia Woolf (1882 – 1941, 59 Years) –  Another British and only Lady among the Four, Virginia Woolf was a writer from an early age, thanks to the environment where she was brought up in a family of historian / author father and nurse turned author Indian origin Mother. Known for her strong writing on various current affairs and firm attitude towards Judaism, Christianity and Fascism, the same had been reflected in her creations also. Novels like “Mrs Dalloway”, “To The Lighthouse”, “Orlando” are one of the most popular ones of Woolf whereas essays like “A Room of One’s Own” is being considered as her voice only.

Michael Madhusudan Dutt (1824 – 1873, 49 Years) – The most versatile Indian poet and dramatist, Michael was a genius who created his own style of sonnet with  “Amritakshar Chanda”  or Blank Verse which is still being considered as an iconic one. Started to write in English in the form of “The Captive Lady”, later Madhusudan graduated into Bengali to write some classics like “Meghnad Bodh Kabya”, “Ekei ki bole Sovyota”, “Buro Shalikher Ghare Row” and others those still mesmerize all poem and drama lovers.

A life full of indiscipline and uncertainty, Michael was only a few of them who wrote his own epitaph well before his death.