President revisits memories

President Abdul Hamid and his family members visited the Brookside Bungalow, where Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore had stayed in 1919.

Nostalgia gripped President Hamid, the then sub-sector commander of the Mukti Bahini during the 1971 Liberation War, when he visited the place after 47 years.

Entering the building, he recited a few poems from Gitanjali. The original handwritten verses hung on the wall.

Later, President Hamid visited a gallery where the paintings of art students were exhibited. At Brookside Bungalow, Abdul Hamid also met a group of Bangladeshi students.

Tagore visited Shillong and stayed at Brookside in Rilbong in 1919 in an Assam-type building which was subsequently taken over by the Meghalaya art and culture department.

The building at Brookside christened Rabindranath Tagore Art Gallery is still preserved by the department.

The Brookside Bungalow, renamed the Rabindranath Art Gallery, is now a centre for promotion of art and literature by the Meghalaya Government.

The poet, during his stay at Shillong, penned the classic Shesher Kabita (farewell song). Shesher Kabita is a novel by Rabindranath Tagore, widely considered a landmark in Bengali literature.

The president's spouse Rashida Khanam, secretaries concerned and other family members accompanied him during the visit here.