SHILLONG, MAY 24: Personal initiative of a research scholar of legendary bard Rabindranath Tagore has paid off as the Meghalaya government has decided to construct the “Rabindra Bhavan” in the state’s capital in memory of the noble laureate.
Meghalaya government conveyed this decision to scholar Malabika Bisharad, had taken a personal interest on the need to preserve the work and memories of the legendary noble laureate, who had set his foot in Shillong in 1919.
“Shillong will feel proud to know that it would soon have Rabindra Bhavan in the near future,” Bisharad told reporters at a news conference on Saturday.
Bisharad informed, “The department of arts and culture in the letter to her had informed that the matter have been taken up with Meghalaya Urban Development Authority (MUDA) for identifying and allotting suitable land for the construction of Rabindra Bhavan.”
The decision of the state government was also a result of an intervention by the President of India Pranab Mukherjee after Bisharad filed a petition to him.
During his maiden visit to Meghalaya as the country’s head last year, Mukherjee had also paid a visit to the Brookside bungalow at Rilbong where Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore had stayed during his visit to Shillong in 1919.
According to Bisharad , it was after Mukherjee’s visit, the Rabindranath Art Gallery was reopened for the public almost after a period of four years.
Earlier, Bisharad had submitted a proposal to construct the Rabindra Bhavan at the temporary location of the State Legislative Assembly building behind Brookside.
Apart from Rabindra Bhavan, Bisharad also had submitted many petitions for the setting up of a ‘research institute’ and ‘library’ to be name after Rabindranath Tagore besides renovation and preservation of Brookside Bungalow and Tagore’s Art Gallery in Shillong.
Bisharad informed that Tagore’s statue in the Brookside campus was installed by the state government during Tagore Ustav on May 2011.
Bisharad informed that Tagore had visited Shillong last during May-June 1927 and stayed at Solomon Villah in Laitumkhrah where he penned many famous poems and started penning his novel ‘Tin furush’ (which was later changed as Yogayog.”
Bisharad, however, lamented that unfortunately Solomon Villah was demolished during June-July 2010. – By Our Reporter
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