One of the major highlights of my visit to Kolkata was discovering Rabindranth Tagore, the Bengali literary giant and Nobel prize winner — the pride of India and Kolkata.
An international writer, author of the famous Gitangeli ( which won him the coveted prize), a painter, an educationalist, and world traveller, he was an amazing man who commanded international respect.
It was a humbling and an amazing experience walking through his ancestral home — the inner courtyard, the rooms where he ate, wrote and slept — which is now a museum. If you are ever heading to Kolkata, this place is a must to visit! I was mesmerised by the commanding portraits of him in flowing gowns and his long, white becoming beard. As I packed my suitcases in preparation of my next travels, I thought about the relative ease and comfort of the process as a touring writer in modern times, and wondered how it was for Tagore in his day, travelling for months on ships to Russia, China, and other far-flung lands.
