Preface
Of the myriad aspects in the life of Rabindranath, the Tagore Travelogues celebrate the wayfarer in him. "I am a wayfarer of an endless road," he said, "My greetings of a wanderer to thee!" Even as a child, Rabindranath had yearned to see the great Outside. In his reminiscences, he recalled being restricted in his movements; even going out of the house was forbidden to them. "We perforce took our peeps at nature from behind the barriers. Beyond my reach there was this limitless thing called the Outside, of which flashes and sounds and scents used momentarily to come and touch me through its interstices. It seemed to want to play with me through the bars with so many gestures....' In the Post Office, Amal symbolizes his longing for 'far-away things'. "See that far-away hill from our window - I often long to go beyond those hills..." Rabindranath's earliest journeys were in his mind and he has left us accounts of these as well as of the later physical journeys in various travel writings-letters, diaries, poems, songs and essays. All of these are in Bengali and in this series we bring these to readers in English translations. Although Rabindranath made his first visit to England more than 125 years ago as an unknown 17 year old lad, surprisingly, we are able to reconstruct that visit rather accurately. This is possible mainly because of the bunch of letters he wrote back home and also because of his recollection of that period in his autobiographical writings. The very fact that he devoted so many chapters of his autobiography on this visit suggests the strong impact this visit had on him. Satyendranath Tagore, the second son of the Maharshi was the District and Sessions Judge at Ahmedabad. His two-year furlough to Englund was due. He had already sent his wife Jnanadanandini and children to England to wwait his arrival there. The family at Jorasanks was finding it difficult to accept that the youngest and most creative member of their family, Rabindranath, was whiling away his time writing poetry! So when Satyendranath offered to take his brother with him to England, their father, the Maharshi, readily agreed. Rabindranath himself later recalled this event and said he was to study in England and come back as a barrister but certain official documents found some years back in the State Archives suggest that he was to appear for the Civil Service examinations. However, he came back neither as a barrister nor as a Civil Servant he remained fortunately a poet! Rabindranath had so far lived a sheltered life in Jorasanko and except for a trip to the Himalayas with his father had remained within the Bengal Province. So this trip to England must have been a great event in his life. Among the preparations that were being taken for Rabindranath's visit to England was the making of an adequate wardrobe, jobbas, a long coat, pantaloons were stitched-records of which have remained in the account books of the Tagores. Photographs were taken of the young poet, possibly for official purposes. Packets of books were bought and sent to Ahmedabad where young Rabindranath was to stay with his brother and acquire the preliminary training and polish in British social etiquette before embarking on his journey. He was even sent to Bombay for a month to stay with a Maharashtrian family-that of Dr. Atmaram Pandurang Turkhud, an eminent physician and social reformer of progressive views. His daughter Annapurna, or Ana as she was called, was given the responsibility of giving him some practice in conversational English. They both quite enjoyed this practice and Rabindranath was to remember Ana all his life. He recalled in his last reminiscences.
About The Book
In 1878. Rabindranath accompanied by his brother.
Satyendranath, sailed for England. Fortunately, we get glimpses of this trip from the letters he wrote home and which were published serially in the family periodical, Bharati, The letters give a lively account of the trip with Interesting details, there are accounts of his impressions of people and events that take place. He continued to write these letters throughout his stay and they give a frank account of English life as he saw it in middle-class and upper middle-class homes. He also writes about the life of Bengalis in England, The letters, full of wit and the swagger of juvenile sophistication, are an interesting and authentic record of the Impact English culture had on Bengalis at the height of the British Empire.
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