Mysore, Oct. 22 (KK&DM)- 'Sanskriti Express,' a five-coach exhibition train on the life and works of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, arrived at Ashokapuram Railway Station in city last evening.
The Sanskriti Express exhibition was inaugurated by B.B. Verma, Divisional Railway Manager, South Western Railway, Mysore, this morning. Goutam Majumder, Additional Divisional Railway Manager, Dr. Anup Dayanand Sadhu, Divisional Commercial Manager and other Railway officials were present.
The train will halt at the Station till Oct. 24 and can be viewed by the public free of cost from 10 am to 8 pm.
Sanskriti Express, launched by Indian Railways as part of 'Sanskriti Yatra' to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, arrived here after traveling through several States including Jharkhand, Assam, Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. It will run throughout the country over the next one year.
The train, which was flagged off by Minister of Railways Mamata Banerjee from the Rail Museum, Howrah, West Bengal, on May 9, 2010, will return to Howrah on May 8, 2011. This train will also be visiting Bangladesh during this period.
The train has five AC coaches:
• The first coach, named 'Jibon Smriti' depicts the life of Tagore through photographs, his reminiscences, about Santiniketan and about Sriniketan.
• The second coach of the train, 'Gitanjali,' exhibits his poems and singing of his songs by eminent artistes. Rabindra-nath Tagore was the first Asian to be presented Nobel Prize for his collection of poems Gitanjali in 1913. Two songs from his Rabindrasangeet canon are now the national anthems of India and Bangladesh: The Jana Gana Mana and the Amar Shonar Bangla.
1n 1921, Tagore established Viswabharati University. He gave all his money from the Nobel Prize and royalty money from his books to this University.
• The third coach of the train, namely 'Muktodhara,' exhibits Rabindra literature — prose, essays, novels, plays and dance dramas; Tagore as performer.
• The fourth 'Chitrarekha' coach depicts paintings of Tagore with descriptions like paintings from his childhood and teenage, portraits, natural stills, landscape, masks, sketches, illustrations and self-portraits.
• The fifth coach, 'Sesh Katha,' presents the photos of the last days of Tagore's life, poems written during his last days.
This coach also has a section called 'Smaranika,' an exhibition and sale of handicrafts from Santiniketan, handwriting of Tagore, vatika depicting history and Indianisation by the poet, ceramic pots and ornaments, gift cards printed by Committee of Heritage & Culture and books by Tagore in Bengali and other languages.
Courtesy : Star Of Mysore
