Tagore's chair, teapot found in Bangladesh

A chair and a teapot that Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore used have been found in Bangladesh, over six decades after the poet's death.

Tagore enthusiasts, the department of archaeology and a museum dedicated to Tagore continue to receive memorabilia even as those in their custody are found neglected and in poor state, The Daily Star newspaper said after a correspondent visited the Patisar Kacharibari Museum.

The department's employees say that some Tagore memorabilia have been lost and efforts are on to collect them in the interests of preservation.

Tagore enthusiast M. Matiur Rahman Mamun earlier collected a considerable number of memorabilia, including a rare letter, accounts register, a bed and two mirrors from villages of Naogaon and Natore districts which were placed in rooms at the proposed Patisar Katcharibari Museum without proper care.

Gaius Uddin, an employee of the department of archaeology said that Zahurul Haque of Maskipur village under Atri Upazila of Naogaon district recently handed over a broken folding chair that belonged to Tagore to the department for preservation at the museum.

Late Mubarak Hossain, father of Zahurul Haque, was an employee of Tagore, said M. Matiur Rahman.

Mohammad Abdus Samad, son of the late Amir Hossain of Sadnagore village under Singra Upazila in Natore district, handed over another wooden chair for preservation in July this year. M. Matiur Rahman Mamun collected a teapot from Maskipur village few months ago which lay in Patisar Katcharibari along with other uncared for memorabilia.

Many of the Tagore memorablia have been preserved at Santiniketan, the open university that Tagore set up in West Bengal, India. Of them, the medal he received along with the 1913 Nobel Prize for Literature went missing some time back.

Tagore is respected in both Bangladesh and India, whose national anthems have been penned by him.