A leisurely walk down the spacious balconies of 6, Dwarkanath Tagore Lane transports one to the time of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore with every brick and object telling the story of the poet, his family, lifestyle and achievements.
Located in a congested north Kolkata lane, the Rabindra Bharati Museum is housed in Tagore’s ancestral home at Jorasanko – the Jorasanko Thakurbari – where he was born in 1861 and also breathed his last 69 years ago in 1941.
The museum, which will celebrate its own birthday Saturday, is part of Rabindra Bharati University set up in the palatial edifice and contains more than 700 photographs and a similar number of paintings of India’s first Nobel laureate.
“There are around 750 paintings and more than 700 photographs in the museum,” curator Indrani Ghosh told IANS, as workmen were seen busy setting up a marquee on the lawns near the main gate for holding the 150th birth anniversary celebrations of the poet who has the unique distinction of authoring the national anthems of two sovereign nations – India and Bangladesh.
Come May 9, the courtyards and lawns surrounding the museum will reverberate with the songs, poems, dance dramas and plays of Tagore to usher in the yearlong celebrations planned by the university for one of the world’s greatest ever literary figures.
A little aloof from all these rooms is the family maternity room where Tagore was born.
A chief attraction of the museum is the art galleries that contain paintings by several artists. Another must-see is a labyrinthine gallery dedicated to India-Japan relations during his time and photographs of Tagore with the Japanese people.
The room where Tagore’s father Debendranath worshipped is also open for public view along with his bedstead.