Shilaidaha Kuthibari, a tourist attraction

KUSHTIA, Aug 10: Shilaidaha is located in Kumarkhali Upazila of the District . It is located at a distance of about 20 km. from the district town. The place is famous for Rabindranath Tagore's Kuthibari which turned into a museum in 1986.
Actually the house was made by Rabindranath's father Dwarkanath Tagore. Rabindranath Tagore lived a part of life here and created some of his memorable poems while living here.  In 1890 Tagore started managing their family estates in Shelaidaha. He mostly stayed on a houseboat where he wrote many poems, essays and stories.
The reformation of Shilai-daha Kuthibari has been completed under the Department of Archaeology, Ministry of Cultural Affairs. It is now a protected national tombstone where a Tagore Memorial Museum has been recognized by the government. It shows many things which were in fact used by the poet and the family members of the poet. The framed pictures, bed, loan-mower, iron-chest etc are there to be seen. Visitors will enjoy the photos of Rabindranath taken at his Kuthibari.
During poet's stay there, well-known, litterateurs and scientists, intellectuals of Bengal used to visit his place frequently. Pramatha Chowdhury, Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, Dwijendralal Roy, Lokendranath Palit, Mohital Majumder and others were regular visitor of the Kuthibari. This famous, beautiful Kuthibari kept significant role on the development of Bangla Literature. This is the place where the poet wrote masterpieces. Sonar Tari, Katha O Kahini, Chitra and other poems and his translation work were done sincerely.
Noble laureate poet Rabindra-nath Tagore stayed for over a decade at irregular intervals between 1891 and 1901 at Shilaidaha Kuthibari, on the south bank of river Padma in Kumarkhali Upazila, Kushtia district.
Kuthibari is a charming three-storied, pyramid-shaped, terraced bungalow, constructed with brick, timber, corrugated tin sheets and Raniganj tiles. The bungalow is nestled within eleven acres of orchards of mango, Bakul, jackfruit and others, a flower garden and two ponds. Tagore wrote Bijoyini sitting under the Bakul tree.
Sitting in Kuthibari or on a boat on Padma, Rabindranath wrote a number of masterpieces such as Sonar Tori, Chitra, Chaitali, Katha O Kahini, Ksanika, most of the poems from Naibedya and Kheya, and the songs from Gitanjali and Gitimalya. It was here, in 1912, that the poet started translating his Gitanjali into English, which earned him the Nobel Prize in 1913. Rabindranath was emotionally involved to Shilaidaha and Padma, which is evident in his Chhinna Patrabali.
It is so beautiful and a tourist attraction. It is a two-storied building although it does have a room on the roof that was the reading room and also meditation room of the poet. Anybody will be overwhelmed just seeing this room on the roof. Rabindranath himself considered this room as a sacred place where he wrote numerous poems and short stories.
But, at present traces of Tagore's works are hardly found at Kuthibari. Local bauls render Tagore songs in the dialect of Kushtia and in the traditional baul tune for the entertainment of the visitors. And at the complex along with Tagore's classics, books by mediocre writers with titles such as Bhalobashar Nayane Ke Dilo Jol, Keno Tumi Etota Pashan and more are being sold. Even the national arrangement of Tagore's birth anniversary on Baishakh 25, has been labeled as an 'eyewash'.
Rabindranath Tagore once wrote in a letter, "The holy place of my literary pursuits during my youth and middle age was the village of Shilaidaha kissed by the waves of Padma".