SHILLONG: He read the portions of Sesher Kabita randomly in silence for around three minutes on Monday evening at the Brookside Mansion at Rilbong where the Nobel laureate Rabindra Nath Tagore had stayed in 1919.
It was for the first time that President Pranab Mukherjee visited the historic mansion at Rilbong, a popular tourist destination for the Tagore lovers especially those from West Bengal.
The Sesher Kabita (farewell song), a novel set and conceptualized in Shillong by Tagore, was kept at a table inside the mansion. The novel depicts the romance between the characters Amit Ray and Labannya in Shillong.
The President also had a glance at Tagore’s handwriting in Bengali and his poems.
He was also led to have a view of the traditional bed inside the mansion which is believed to have been used by Tagore during his stay here.
Prior to this, the President paid floral tributes to the life size statute of Tagore.
Tagore enjoyed the serenity of Rilbong which gave him the story idea of Sesher Kabita which he wrote in Bangalore. He had also mentioned in the Novel about the mighty eucalyptus tree which is standing tall at the Brookside complex.
However, the atmosphere in and around the Brookside mansion was not so serene like the 1990s.
There was no babbling sound of the brook unlike the past as the stream is ugly now with the dumping of wastes by the neighborhood. The Government had to cover a portion of the brook with decorative clothes with an intention not to catch the eyes of the President.
However, the President wrote in the visitor’s digital book at the mansion his likeness for the place.
