Tagore's room in Shahibaug to get a face-lift

by ahmedabad: on his 59th death anniversary which falls on monday, august 7, ahmedabad will observe the solemn occasion in a special way. tagore's room in the shahibaug palace is all set to have a face-lift, with the sardar vallabhbhai patel memorial society sending a proposal to the state government to decorate the room with photographs depicting the life and times of the poet, and displaying his books and cassettes of rabindra sangeet in the room.says director of the society, ashok desai, "it is a rs two lakh-worth project. we have already formulated the concept and are going to work in consultation with the vishwabharati university at shantiniketan. the work will start the day the state government releases the funds required to develop the room into a tourist spot within the shahibaug palace." tagore had a special association with gujarat and especially ahmedabad, having visited the city more than once the first time when he was only 17-year-old and the last time when he was nearing 70. interestingly, on more than one occasion when he was going abroad, tagore stopped over at ahmedabad. it was, however, only during his first visit to the city in 1878, which lasted for four months, that he had stayed at shahibaug, then the residence of his brother, satyendranath tagore, the first ics of the country who was the session's judge here. the medieval palace was mostly unoccupied as his elder brother's family was in england and young tagore, waiting for his turn to go abroad, spent time exploring the palace, reading literary masterpieces and writing. as he himself has written in jibansmriti (reminiscence): "i used to live in a small room in the turret of the shahibaug palace. some hornets shared the room with me. .... during the lunar nights i used to walk about on the big terrace that overlooked the river. it is while spending the nights on the terrace that i wrote the first song set to tune by me." the song, nirab rajani dekho magna jochona, describing the palace on a moonlit night, is as apt today, deserted as the palace stands today, as it was then. it was not just this one song, the room happened to be the germination ground for a number of other songs. the memories of staying in the palace with the feeble and thin sabarmati flowing past it, formed the backdrop of one of tagore's romantic short story, khudito pashan (hungry stones), which he wrote at the age of 34 and himself translated into english three years after winning the nobel prize. ahmedabad as a city may not have had an extensive influence in tagore's life, but it surely proved a milestone as far as his journey as a poet-novelist-lyricist-musician-painter is concerned. the efforts of the sardar vallabhbhai patel memorial society is a tribute to both the poet and also the city which played a small but significant role in the works of this creative genius.