SANTINIKETAN- A Tranquil

The credit for some of the best days of my life goes to this beautful place called Santiniketan in West Bengal. I reached there through one of my wonderful friend cum colleague who had some academic work in Visva Bharati University being its student in masters and i managed to go with her in December 2010. Such a beautiful place it is, full of art and artists...

                          Well, let me introduce Santiniketan to you all reading this and below you will also find some amazing pictures clicked by me during my visit to santiniketan. :)

a house at shantiniketan- with a mural

It is a small town near Bolpur in the Birbhum district of West Bengal, India, approximately 180 kilometres north of Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). It was made famous by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, whose vision became what is now a university town (Visva-Bharati University) that attracts thousands of visitors each year. Santiniketan is also a tourist attraction because Rabindranath wrote many of his literary classics here, and his house is a place of historical importance.

Santiniketan-Railway station

Kala Bhavana, the art college of Santiniketan, is still considered one of the best art colleges in the world. Murals, paintings, sculptures and craft all around you. Each and every building, the office, the food places ( dhabas), the railway station, the shops, everything has some or the other kind of art ( paintings, murals,sculptures) created and painted by the teachers and students of Kala-Bhawan in different themes.

a great sculpture of Lord Budhha

Sculpture (sujata)

I loved this Tree

   

Black House

Black House : A mud building known for its relief works done by stalwarts like Ram Kinkar and Prabhas Sen. Usually the final year student of Visva Bharati stay here.

Black House

 

Prayer Hall (Upasana Griha)

 A prayer hall, made of several colored Belgium glasses with marble steps on all the four sides by the poet's father in 1863. During evening service, candle is lit around the prayer hall, and it wears a magnificent look in flickering light. Prayers are held on Wednesday.

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The Poush Mela deserves special mention, this being a major tourist attraction.It is a 3-day fair (Bengali, mela means a fair ),starting on the seventh day of the Bengali month Poush(usually, last week of December).It fetches not just tourists, but also artisans, folk singers, dancers, and the traditional Baul from the neighbourhood. I fortunate to be a spectator of the paush mela.. and believe me it was wonderful, the traditional craft i.e. batik and leather craft and embroidery of Bengal, i.e Kantha done on various products like sarees, file folders, stoles, shawls, suits, bags, purses  n much more with beautiful embellishments , was the center of attraction. Interesting to see the images below. :)

This vehicle is used specially used to carry

people coming to see Paush mela from far off places.

This was interesting to see.

Batik- in vibrant and bright colours.

Trying wooden bangles on..lol

 

Live performance of Baul music

Have experienced such a wonderful, different and a very interesting life at Santiniketan.. The food I had was really awesome… somethings like “luchi” “ghugni” “bhaat” “bhaja” “pyaazi” “aloo chop” “sondesh” “gur wala rasgulla” “murri” “peetha” “navadhibhog””dim toast” etc etc etc… (oh my mouth started watering).. yummy!!! Will miss all this….. Hope I get a chance to visit santiniketan  again sometime in my life.

 MISS U SANTINIKETAN... WILL ALWAYS WAIT TO SEE U AGAIN.. THANKYOU ALMIGHTY FOR SUCH AN AMAZING EXPERIENCE.
Luv
Chandana :)