The top bosses of the KMC have taken up plans to offer a slice of the grandeur of Tagorean days to visitors flocking
Jorasanko Thakurbari.
In the words of the Turkish Nobel laureate
Orhan Pamuk’s famous words— Real museums are places where time is transformed
into Space and real museums are places where Space can also be transformed into
Time; recreation of the lost ambience of Tagorean heritage at Jorasanko
Thakurbari fulfils the author’s words.
Renovating
Tagore’s abode
Considering Tagore’s known interest in
popular martial art forms, including Kushti and Judo, the proposed makeover
plan of the Thakurbari campus would feature re-creation of a Kushti Akhara,
which used to be among the top showpieces of the heritage household.
Tagore, say annals, had arranged judo
training sessions by celebrated judoka Shinzo Tagaki at Santiniketan back in
1929 and it stands as the first written account on the unique martial art form
in India.
According to the detailed project report
drawn up by the department of architecture of Jadavpur University, the
northernmost open space lying on the backside of Bichitra Bhavan, which once
housed the granary for the Tagore household and now lie unused, would be turned
into a visitors’ courtyard. It would afford visitors and tourists a relaxing
space to catch a quick breather after doing the rounds of the indoor museum.
The proposed Kushti Akhara would further
afford space for visitors to sit and ruminate on the fun young Rabi would have
had spoiling himself in the mud in his boyhood days.
Bringing
back the glory
According to the plan, parts of the
surrounding buildings would be partially blocked out to create proper ambience.
The backyard court of the heritage campus
would be gilded with lights in a manner as to recreate its past ambience. Apart
from a host of attractions at the backyard court, the visitors would also be
accorded a chance to pick a memento from the souvenir shop.