Village That Inspired Tagore # Improve Vocabulary
Source : National Geographic Traveler
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The Village That Inspired Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore often holidayed in Mongpu, a quiet Himalayan village about 1.5hr from Darjeeling, during the last three years of his life. So it was only natural that photographer Dhritiman Mukherjee and Bollywood music director Shantanu Moitra visited Mongpu—and their Bengali heritage—when they were on the West Bengal leg of their #100DaysInHimalayas project. Between February and December 2016, the duo will make a series of trips in the Himalayas covering reaches running from Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh, and into the neighbouring foothills of Nepal and Bhutan—and they’re taking National Geographic Traveller Indiaalong for the ride.
On a day trip to Mongpu, they visited the bungalow where Tagore stayed at the invitation of his protégée, the author Maitreyi Devi. The house overlooks a cinchona plantation and quinine factory, once managed by Devi’s husband. On his last visit in 1940, Tagore fell very ill and had to be shifted to Kolkata. He passed away the next year, leaving behind several possessions at the Mongpu residence, which was later turned into a museum by the government, and named Rabindra Bhavan.
Among Rabindra Bhavan’s display are artworks, handwritten documents, and most interestingly, furniture designed by Tagore and carved by his son, Rathindranath Tagore. Moitra and Mukherjee saw Tagore’s bed, which has an inclined headrest said to have tackled his respiratory problem. His mahogany writing desk and chair, said to be designed to support his back, faces a window with a tranquil view of the lush, hilly landscape that the nature-loving writer treasured. For Mukherjee, the window by which Tagore wrote provided the biggest emotional connection. “He had a vast view in front, and that landscape is intact,” the photographer said, “It’s very green, there are lots of trees; it’s at the edge of the snow.”
Like many visitors at this memorial to a literary giant, Moitra was dismayed by the broken windowpanes, cracked walls, dented doors and inadequate security. “We could have walked out with any of Tagore’s belongings,” he said. And yet, much of it remains. The place may be unkempt but the legacy of Tagore’s visits is still strong in the village.
| WORD | MEANING | SYNONYM |
| 1. Photographer | A person who takes photographs, especially as a job. | Paparazzo, photojournalist, shutterbug |
| 2. Heritage | Property that is or may be inherited; and inheritance;
A special or individual possession; an allotted portion |
Ancestry, culture, custom, legacy, right, tradition, bequest, birthright, convention, dowry, endowment, estate, fashion, inheritance, lot, patrimony, portion, share |
| 3. Cinchona | An evergreen South American tree or shrub with fragrant flowers, cultivated for its bark | |
| 4. Plantation | An estate on which crops such as coffee, sugar, and tobacco are grown;
Colonization or settlement of emigrants, especially of English and then Scottish families in Ireland in 16th -17th centuries under government sponsorship. |
Estate, homestead, orchard, ranch, farmstead, hacienda, vineyard |
| 5. Protegee | A person who is guided and supported by an older and more experienced or influential person | Applicant, buyer, consumer, patient, patron, shopper, believer, chump, dependent, disciple, follower, front, head, mark, purchaser, walk-in, ward |
| 6. Quinine | A bitter crystalline compound present in cinchona bark, used as a tonic formerly as an antimalarial drug. | Blame, castigation, censure, curse, defamation, derision, hosing, insults, invective, knifing, libel, obloquy, opprobrium, put-down, reproach, revilement, scolding, signifying, slander, swearing, tirade, upbraiding, vilification, vituperation |
| 7. Possessions | The state of having, owning, or controlling something.
Something that is owned or possessed. |
Custody, dominion, hold, occupancy, occupation, proprietary, retention, tenancy, tenure, title |
| 8. Residence | A person’s home, especially a large and impressive one. | Apartment, condo, dwelling, hall, headquarters, home, house, mansion, palace, abode, address, co-op, domicile, habitation, hole, household, inhabitancy, inhabitation, lodging, manor, occupancy, occupation, rack, roof, roost, seat, settlement, villa |
| 9. Artworks | Illustrations, photographs, or other non-textual material prepared for inclusion in a publication. | Art, artwork, picture, piece, portrait, watercolor, oil |
| 10. Carved | Cut in order to produce and object, design or inscription. | Chiseled, engraved, sculpted, carven, chased, cut, etched, furrowed, graved, graven, grooved, hewed, hewn, modeled, scissored, slashed, sliced, whittled |
| 11. Tackled | Make determined efforts to deal with ( a problem or difficult task) | Accept, begin, deal with, engage in, take up, try, undertake, work on, attack, attempt, essay, launch |
| 12. Mahogany | Hard reddish-brown timber from a tropical tree, used for quality furniture.
A tropical tree which produces mahogany. |
Amber, bay, beige, bister, brick, bronze, buff, chestnut, chocolate, cinnamon, cooca, coffee, copper, drab, dust, ecru, fawn, ginger, hazel, henna, khaki, nut, ochre, puce, russet, rust, sepia, sorrel, tan, toast, umber |
| 13. Tranquil | Free from disturbance; calm | Amicable, balmy, calm, easygoing, gentle, mild, pastoral, placid, restful, sedate, serene, sober, stable, tame, temperate |
| 14. Intact | Not damaged or impaired in any way; complete | Flawless, perfect, unblemished, unbroken, unharmed, unhurt, unscathed, untouched |
| 15. Memorial | A statue or structure established to remind people of a person or event; a statement of facts, especially as the basis of a petition. | Remembering, canonizing, celebrative, commemoratory, consecrating, consecrative, dedicatory, deifying, enshrining, in tribute, memorializing, monumental |
| 16. Inadequate | Lacking the quality or quantity required; insufficient for a purpose | Deficient, faulty, incompetent, incomplete, incomplete, lacking, meager, poor, scarce, sketchy, skimpy, unequal, weak |
| 17. Unkempt | Having an untidy or disheveled appearance. | Bedraggled, dilapidated, disheveled, grubby, grungy, messy, neglected, rumpled, scruffy, shaggy. |