By Uma Purkayastha
It is an interesting story as to how the ‘Solomon Vila’ of Upland Road was renamed as ‘Sidhli House’, the palace of the king of Sidhli, a Rabindra Memorial of the past.
I had interviewed Rani Manjula Devi, the owner of Sidhli House, on May 27, 1991. Manjula Devi, then an old ailing widow of Raja Ajit Narayan Deb, king of Sidhli, a princely Estate in Assam’s Goalpara district, had a serene smile. She had narrated the history of the house.
Manjula Devi purchased the house in 1948 from Joseph Louis Delangrade, an Italian Christian who was the original owner of the house.
Rabindranath Tagore had visited her father’s estate ‘Pithapuram’, a princely estate in Andhra Pradesh, and was a guest to the royal family for a week. During the sojourn, Manjula, then a child, developed such a close relationship with Tagore that sometimes he would propose to her father to adopt Manjula and take her to Shantiniketan to train her in his own ideologies.
In 1948, Manjula Devi came to know that the house, ‘Solomon Vila’ in Shillong, where Tagore had stayed for two months in 1927, was going to be disposed of. She became desperate to purchase that house as it had the memory of the Bard. Her husband Raja Ajit Narayan heartily encouraged her to purchase the property. They renamed it as Sidhli House. It became the family’s summer house.
The room where I was seated with Manjula Devi was well-furnished. There were two big photographs hanging on the wall — one was of Tagore and the other was Tagore with Manjula’s father.
Manjula Devi showed me an album containing photographs of her parents and other members of her family, accompained by Tagore. Only one photograph was there of Tagore with child Manjula and her younger brother.
“He was like my father,” Manjula Devi had told me. After her marriage, she visited Tagore in Shantiniketan and took his blessings.
There was a plaque outside the house that was erected by the Assam government, under the instruction of the central government, in 1961 to commemorate Tagore’s stay there.
During my conversation with Manjula Devi, a middle-aged woman interrupted. She told me that ‘Sidhli House’ was private property and that the plaque at the entrance should be removed.
Rani Manjula Devi looked uncomfortable while that woman was talking to me. Later, I came to know from Manjula Devi that the woman was her daughter whom the couple adopted after their son, Jayanta, died in his youth.
I could realise that the adopted daughter had no respect for the mother’s sentiment towards Tagore. I asked Manjula Devi if she had any intention to sell the house. “No! Never! Impossible! Till my death, I won’t part with it,” she said emphatically. Her eyes were brimming with tears.
After a few words I took leave from her.
At the entrance of ‘Sidhli House’, there was a grassy lawn and in one side there was a colourful garden. On the other side of the lawn there was a signboard that read Jayanta Academy of Fine Arts, Sidhli House, Shillong.
Majula Devi had founded the Academy of Fine Arts in memory of her son who was a good painter.
The plaque at the main entrance had engravings in three parts —
‘WE LIVE IN THIS WORLD
WHEN WE LOVE IT’ Tagore
HERE LIVED RABINDRANATH TAGORE IN MAY AND JUNE 1927. ‘His famous Novel Yogayog and Poems Susamay and Debdaru etc were written here’.
The plaque was inaugurated on September 3, 1961, by Helimon Khongphai, who was a former headmistress of Government Girls’ High School, Shillong.
Khongphai, being a Khasi lady, deliverd her lecture on Tagore in Bengali which was very thoughtful and was highly applauded by the huge gathering. (Ananda Bazar Patrika, September 4, 1961)
I noted down the wordings of the plaque in my dairy and came out silently. Only the last utterings of Manjula Devi were echoing in my mind, ‘No! Never! Till my death I won’t part with it!’
Nineteen years later, the house was demolished. With Manjula Devi’s demise, memories of Tagore faded.
A multi-storeyed building came up during 2010-2011. Ironically, it was the time when the entire world was diligently celebrating the 125th birth anniversary of Tagore.
A delegation of Rabindra lovers in Shillong, including me, met Philip Pala, the present owner of the house, in 2011 with a request to replace the plaque in a proper place inside the complex to make the people aware that Tagore had stayed here and left his valuable memoirs here.
Pala accepted the proposal compassionately and assured that after the completion of the construction he would replace the plaques, which were kept in a room “with full care”. He also assured of installing a statue of Tagore at his own cost. That was in May 2011.
The construction of the building was completed long back but the promises were never fulfilled. Isn’t it high time to show due respect to the Great Bard by reinstalling the plaque and putting up a statue (as was committed), which would undoubtedly increase the glory and dignity of the house and of the city concurrently?
(The author is former headmistress,
Government Girls’ High School)
