Mid-nineties I visited Santiniketan with my family and my fond memories of visiting the craft mela revived when I visited on 19th February 2022 again to have a meeting with Surul Swastha Samiti, established in 1934 on the values inculcated from the mission initiated by the Nobel Laureate, Rabindra Nath Tagore, “Rural Reconstruction Programme”.
The meeting was basically to join hands for having a Community Library and Resource Centre along with the Health Centre. The READ Model encourages the partners to provide free space wherever possible and Sural Swastha Samiti, provided the first floor of the building, next to the cultural heritage, Rajbari, just adjacent to this Centre.
On Shubho Nobo Borsho (Bengali New Year), 15th April 2022, the READ Centre, with books, computers, early learning material, was inaugurated. The reflections of community commitment, community participation, art and culture, traditional cultural performances by local community, local exhibition, enthusiasm, kantha embroidery as a proud art display and on the above authentic food were some of the highlights of the programme. I was so fascinated by the beauty and the dressing of the girls, women and boys who performed on the wonderful Bengali songs written and composed by Rabindra Nath Tagore. India’s true culture and heritage one can see in rural India, we can still name it as “India’s real dharohar (India’s richness). Here money is not an upfront issue, but respect, dignity, dialogue and Visva Bharati University Professors and Teachers when talked about the Rabindra Nath Tagore and is followed religiously was a great learning.
While staying in the guest house PALASH, talking to the care taker, Shyamal, who very proudly said that he knows the English very well, is well-versed in handling day to day needs of IT tools and can efficiently do work on MS Office, I was fascinated by his commitment to take care of the guests 24×7 with his humble personality. I had a chat with the cook, who is the mother of Shyamal, a simple lady, dedicated to cook food for the guests and a helper, Sangita, who is 12th pass, taking tuition at home for children and also assisting her Aunt when the guests come at PALASH for taking care of them to the best possible extent.
They both shared with me that their sister is an expert in embroidery and make beautiful embroidery pieces, if I can give a chance to meet with her. On 16th morning, I called her at the guest house and she showed me her work. I was amazed to see the neatness, the quality assurance and the wonderful designs. Further interaction with her revealed that this heritage craft of Kantha every girl has to learn from the childhood, what is required is designing, colour combination, the cloth on which they do embroidery and the need to enhance their skills to match with the expectations of the buyers. She also showed me the samples of Gujarat embroidery. She mentioned that the small shift in the stitch can help them learn the art of another State. This made me realise the Unity in Diversity still exists which may be invisible in the forefront, but the India’s strong culture cannot ignore. It’s a natural instinct which we all have but are losing our simplicity to express, show and practice in our day to day life.
READ Centre was launched with deep happiness as the Mission set 100 years back, still works very well, people may leave this world but the values never die. This we have to understand and do a bit of goodness every day so that they become part of our rich culture, take the shape of values and we all should leave some legacy for remembrance and the journey should continue for years to come! This could only be possible if Education is our back bone, cultural values are in our hearts, discourses are meaningful, and the dialogue should be “What we can do for others, not, what they have done for us”!
