Sitting - Srikantho Singha Standing - from left - Rabindranath Tagore, Somendranath, Satyaprasad Srikantho Singha belonged to the Singha family of Raypur, Birbhum District. He was the uncle of Satyendra Prasanna Singha Somendranath is Rabindranath's elder brother. He was two years older than Rabindranath. Satyaprasad was the eldest son of Rabindranath's eldest sister, Saudamini. Satyaprasad and Somendranath were born in the same year. One day Srikantho Singha took the three boys to a studio owned by an Englishman in Calcutta. He sweet-talked with the Englishman and said to him, "I cannot pay so much for a photograph, I am a poor man - No, No, Saheb, that will not happen". The Englishman smiled and agreed to take a picture at a reduced rate. Good that he did. So we have this extra-ordinary photograph - giving us a view of how young boys from aristocratic Bengali families dressed up in 1870. Satyaprasad was an interesting character and used to say strange things. At the age of eleven Rabindranath took a train ride for the first time to Bolpur. Satyaprasad had already been to Bolpur. He said to Rabindranath before the ride, "it took a special capability to get into a train. If you slip that would be the end. Then, once the train starts moving, you have to sit tight with all your strength. Otherwise, it pushes you so hard that you are thrown out and cannot be found." Rabindranath was apprehensive when he arrived at the station. But he got into the train with such an ease that he suspected that the main part of getting into a train was not over. Then after the careless start of the train he was disappointed that he did not see the dangerous side of riding a train. Satyaprasad had a sister named Irabati. Rabindranath and Irabati were born in the same year. Irabati had strong imagination. She told Rabindranath that there was a palace inside the Jorasanko house. Sometimes she would tell Rabindranath, "Today I went there". He looked around for the palace, but did not find it. Many times he asked Irabati if the palace was outside the house. She replied: "No, it is inside this house." Rabindranath was never able to find the palace. "Mother nature would make a fist, smile and ask me: Could you tell what is in there? I did not know for certain what would be impossible to be in there." Translated from Bengali Previous  Next  List  Home