Selfless service to the poet Rabindranath Tagore in Mungpoo

Sep 17: Shishir Rahut has a tenuous link with Tagore. And a thankless job to boot to honour that link. Rahut's grandfather Bhimlal, a worker at the quinine factory at Mungpoo, used to carry Rabindranath Tagore on a palanquin-chair up the steep slopes during the four visits the Bard made to this sleepy little hamlet nestled in the verdant hills on the way from Kalimpong to Darjeeling.

"Tagore would arrive from Kalimpong by car to a spot a couple of hundred feet below Mungpoo where the road from Kalimpong would end. A few workers of the factory, including my grandfather, would then carry him up to the quarters of the factory's chief chemist, Manmohan Sen, where he would stay. I grew up listening to tales of Tagore's days here, how he would mix with the local people," Rahut tells TOI.

This mid-sized bungalow, with its four bedrooms, is now a memorial to Tagore. But a sad one. Set in a small plot of land beside the now defunct factory, this neat bungalow wears a look of desolation and neglect. It would have, once upon a time, offered a grand view of the surrounding hills. And that, coupled with the serenity of the scenic place, definitely inspired Tagore to compose many a poem and prose while sitting in the long verandah (now enclosed) that ran the length of the bungalow and overlooked the small garden in front.

This bungalow belongs to, and is supposed to be maintained by, for some unfathomable reason, the Bengal government's labour welfare department. But the department couldn't be bothered. And it has fallen on Rahut to look after this bungalow and maintain it. A small notice outside the two gates at the rear of the bungalow has Rahut's cellphone number and invites visitors to dial that. He comes scampering down from his house about half a kilometer above the bungalow to open the gates and show visitors around. He's the caretaker, guide, gardener and the sole guardian of this legacy of Tagore. He doesn't get paid anything by the government and depends solely on donations from visitors.

"I do it out of respect for this great son of India. My grandfather was fortunate to have served Tagore and I'm fortunate to have this task," says Rahut. Never mind that the task is a self-assigned one. But then, hadn't Rahut taken this responsibility on his shoulders, all the priceless articles that he so painstakingly maintains inside the bungalow, whose rooms he sweeps and cleans twice a day, would have disappeared and fallen to ruins a long time ago.

A large copper plate on the verandah in front of the bungalow mentions Tagore's visits to this place: he first came here on May 21, 1938 and stayed till June 9. His next visit was from May 14 to June 17 the next year and again from September 12 to the first week of November in 1939. His last visit was in 1940, and he celebrated his birthday (the 25th day of Baisakh) here that year. That was when he composed his poem 'Janmadin' (birthday). A large portrait of the Nobel laureate, before which a vase of fresh flowers is lovingly placed by Rahut and incense sticks lit by him every morning, is kept on a stool on this verandah.

From the verandah, a door leads to a bedroom where Tagore used to stay. A bed, with a reclining headboard, and a few articles occupies this room. Rahut points out that the mattress on the bed is the one Tagore had slept on. This bedroom leads to an ante-room and then to a bath that has a unique bathtub (a Tagore creation) with two small tanks from which hot and cold water would flow into the main tub. Next to this bedroom is the living and dining rooms, then the master bedroom and the personal study of Moitreyee Devi, Manmohan's wife and daughter of Tagore's friend Surendranath Dasgupta.

All these rooms, save for Tagore's bedroom and a small study at one end of the verandah, are bare. But their walls do have framed photographs, nearly all in various stages of decay, of very rare photographs. There are photos of Tagore at various stages of his life, including a very uncommon one of Tagore with a large smile lighting his visage. There's also another photo of Tagore, bald and haggard, perhaps in the last stages of his illustrious life. There are many photos of Tagore's friends, associates and family members, like that of Kshitimohan Sen (Amartya Sen's father), Tagore's son Rathindranath and his wife Protima Devi during their visit to Mungpoo, and even Gurudev's paintings.

The room at the end of the verandah was used by Tagore as his study and contains a writing desk with a leather cushion Gurudev used to sit on. There's a copy of the 'National Herald' (a popular newspaper of those days) dated May 9, 1939 that Tagore would have read. And watercolours by 'Pelican' (a British company) that Tagore would have used. A pen stand crafted by Tagore sits on this desk. There are many such interesting knick-knacks housed in this 86-year-old bungalow that was declared 'Rabindra Smriti Bhawan' on May 20, 1944.

It was taken over by the labour welfare department in December 1951, and the department's only contribution since then has been to run a small library for children of the quinine factory and plantation in what used to be Manmohan Sen's office. The Directorate of Cinchona and Other Plantations, which ran the quinine factory next to the bungalow, spares some money from its meager funds to carry out essential repairs, like when two big trees fell on the Tagore Memorial and damaged two rooms earlier this year. The bungalow was last renovated eleven years ago and Ashok Bhattacharyya, the former North Bengal Affairs Minister, promised to transfer the memorial to the Information & Cultural Affairs department. That never happened.

Bhattacharya's successor Gautam Deb, who visited Mungpoo last month, promised Rs 5 lakh for the memorial. But till the funds actually come, Rahut is skeptical. "And anyway, it'll take much more than that (Rs 5 lakh) to restore this bungalow and carry out a scientific restoration and preservation of all the articles here," he told TOI. The new dispensation in Bengal, which swears by Tagore, would do well to listen to Rahut, who has been selflessly guarding the Bard's legacy in this remote hamlet that was so favoured by Tagore.

TOI