09/05/2026
On the 165th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, we remember not only the poet of songs, prayers, and revolutions of thought, but also the weary traveller who once found solace in the misty hills of Mungpoo. It was not merely a retreat for Tagore; it became a sanctuary of reflection, affection, and creativity.
Tagore visited Mangpoo several times between 1938 and 1940 at the invitation of Maitreyi Devi and her husband. The poet stayed in the quiet bungalow now known as Rabindra Bhavan, surrounded by emerald tea gardens, mountain winds, and endless Himalayan rain. Unlike the grandeur of Santiniketan, Mangpoo offered him an inward solitude, gentle, melancholic, and deeply lyrical.
The hills seemed to soften Tagoreâs aging soul. Here, he wrote letters, poems, songs, and essays filled with philosophical tenderness and an awareness of mortality. Maitreyi Devi later immortalized these moments in her memoir "Mongpute Rabindranath", portraying Tagore not as the distant Nobel laureate, but as a deeply human figure â playful, affectionate, contemplative, and vulnerable. Through her recollections, Mangpoo emerges almost like a living poem, holding the final echoes of the poetâs wandering spirit. Even today, the wooden corridors of Rabindra Bhavan preserve his writing desk, manuscripts, and personal belongings. The air there still carries something unspoken as if the hills remember the footsteps of the old poet who watched clouds gather over the Teesta valley and turned silence into literature.
