Gateway to the life of Rabindranath Tagore

At the crossing of Chittaranjan Avenue - one of the main arteries cutting vertically across central Calcutta - and Dwarakanth Tagore Lane, a typically untidy and constricted tributary, stands a tacky terracotta arch. This is the gateway to Jorasanko Thakurbari (the house of Tagores of Jorasanko).

The bust of a long-haired, bearded man perched on top looks away indifferently, turning his gaze from the white smoke, spewed non-stop by heavy vehicles, and the mesh of electric cables, running horizontally, on all sides, splitting up the landscape in thin strips.

This is Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) - poet, artist, educationist and visionary, commonly recognized as the voice of the East in the early 20th century. And the lane beneath his gaze leads to the "red house", where he was born and raised, and returned to from his trips abroad and indeed from where he was sent off on his last journey.