<i>Missing Tagore memorabilia recovered after 13 yrs</i>

This bed, left, that belonged to poet Rabindranath Tagore was recently recovered in Natore. The clock and monograms of his estate, right, were recovered from Naogaon and Sirajganj recently after they went missing 13 years ago.Photo: STAR

A large number of misplaced memorabilia of Nobel laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore have been recovered from different areas in Sirajganj, Natore and Naogaon.
Assistant Commissioner (AC) for land Dawan Mahamudul Haque handed at least 54 Tagore memorabilia to the Archaeology Department on May 7, said Nahid Sultana, custodian of Rabindranath Kacharibari Museum at Shahzadpur, Sirajganj.
The objects had been misplaced 13 years ago when the AC land office shifted from the Rabindranath Kacharibari premises to its own building nearby.
Archaeology Department sources said the memorabilia include 19 monograms of Dihikashipur Pargana zaminder, a large brass dish, metal glasses, measuring chain, and a bell. Most of the monograms bear Bangla and English inscriptions and punch marks on them.
The sources said rust has eaten away the originality and beauty of almost all the metal relics because of lack of maintenance.
A senior official of the Archaeology Department said, "All the recovered objects will be displayed at the Rabindranath Kacharibari Museum soon."
Local sources said many such antiquities were lost or misplaced from the kacharibari just after the Liberation War.
Earlier, a number of Tagore memorabilia including a wall clock, mirrors and a cot were recovered from the houses of locals in Atrai upazila of Naogaon and have been put on display at Potishar Kacharibari, the only kacharibari Rabindranath Tagore looked after himself.
Archaeology Department officials said they do not have the required fund to turn the historical place into a museum so that the invaluable objects used by Tagore could be preserved better.