Too many in charge, less to take care

Mungpoo/Kalimpong, May 9: Too many departments are in charge of the Rabindra Bhawan in Mungpoo.

Yet the bungalow — where the bard celebrated his 80th birthday and penned Janmadin — is the most neglected of all Tagore hill retreats. 

A portion of the bungalow is covered with blue tarpaulins. A big signboard on the driveway has been discoloured. The nameplate of the bungalow on its gate has cracked. The shed on the campus is in need of repair and an arch made of cast iron, which ideally should have had creepers running over it, hangs above Tagore’s bust.Reason? Nobody knows who is supposed to do the repair. Not many government officials in Mungpoo were able to pinpoint who the guardian of the bungalow is. 

Till 1996, this bungalow used to house an activity centre of the West Bengal Labour Welfare Board. Then state urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya made a public announcement that it would be handed over to the information and culture department. Even though there was no written order, we were asked to shift to Rabindra Memorial Model Labour Welfare Centre (an auditorium) adjacent to the museum,” said an employee of the welfare board.

 

Officials at the information and culture department said they too had not received any written order on the transfer of their office to the Rabindra Bhawan till date.

Sadha Chandra Mondal, assistant labour welfare commissioner, stressed that the museum was still under his department’s jurisdiction. “We look after the museum but there is some hotchpotch,” he admitted, although the labour welfare board had not employed any caretaker for the museum. The current caretaker is paid by the directorate of cinchona and other medicinal plantation, which is under the state’s agriculture department.

“We do not have any allotment for the museum but we try our best to look after it. Earlier, the bungalow was under the cinchona plantations but it was transferred to the labour board many years ago,” said Gyan Chandra Subba, the director of the cinchona plantations in Mungpoo, 35km from Darjeeling town.

To add to the confusion, a committee was formed last year to organise the celebration of Tagore’s 150th birth anniversary. The committee is made up of representatives of the district administration, information and culture department, labour welfare board and the directorate of cinchona plantation.

Perhaps it was because of the involvement of different departments that it took almost 12 days, according to a district official, to remove a tree that had fallen on the museum’s rooftop on April 13.

“We have decided to hold a meeting of the committee that was formed last year on May 25 to look into all aspects. Ideally the museum should be looked after by one department,” said Tamal Das, the sub-divisional officer of Darjeeling, who was the chief guest at a programme held there today on the poet’s birth anniversary.

As far as the repair of the museum’s roof is concerned, Das said funds would be made available.

Rabindranath Tagore had visited Mungpoo four times between 1938 and 1940 because of his love for the place and special bond with Maitreyi Devi, the daughter of his friend Surendranath Dasgupta. Memoirs of his stay here were published by Maitreyi Devi in her book Mungpoote Rabindranath.

The story is no different in Kalimpong. Had Tagore been alive he probably would have penned an elegy on the approaching death of the bungalow from where he had recited Janmadin (Birthday) live on national radio 70-odd years ago.

The house, which is owned by B.K. Roychowdhury of Calcutta, is located in a scenic hill surrounded by lots of greenery. In fact, there are very few properties in the town with such sprawling premises. However, the bungalow is in need of serious repair.

Thick foliage has sprouted all over the two-storied building and its windows broken. Even the un-metalled approach road, which is part of the property, has seen better years. Wild growths everywhere have all but hidden the road.