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April 17, 2005
Santiniketan, a university-town
I have been spending a few days in Santiniketan, the West Bengal university town that is better known as the home and ashram of the Nobel-Prize winning poet, Rabindranath Tagore.
It is a pleasant town, on quite a small scale, with a large area dedicated to the university campus. The feeling is one of space and meditation, with many trees, parks, and gardens around the town. The buildings have an interesting feel to them too, as they were designed to be above mere functionality, but were to introduce beauty with function - one of the important tenents of my life too.
In keeping with this idea, there is much art and sculpture to see all around the campus, and many students visit from overseas to study here. There are special buildings where inter-cultural activity takes place for countries all over the world, though this is more in the winter time, when the climate is better.
As the town is quite spread-out, I engaged a cycle-rickshaw to take me about. We visited various buildings, galleries, and workshops in the area, and then went to see the Deer Park, a large area of woodland that has over 300 spotted deer roaming about. They are quite small, but the males have antlers. It was very pleasant to wander about the park and sit under the sal trees, watching the deer.
The weather is very hot at the moment, and never seems too go under 90 degrees Fahrenheit. At lunchtime, it is often over 100 (or 37.4 degrees Celcius, if you prefer). I am using my umbrella as a parasol these days, and very effective it is too. Many people use umbrellas in this way, some even managing to ride a bicycle whilst holding one!
The Bengali New Year was on the 15th, but it did not seem to encroach much into the locality. I was expecting fireworks, mass gatherings, and drinking, but it did not seem to happen, in public at least. Quite a change from Diwali, when enough fireworks are let off to start a small war.
Posted by travellingtim at April 17, 2005 11:42 AM