My familiarity with the Shillong hills is not new. Probably Shillong will remind you of Amit and Labanya of ‘Sesher Kobita’ (the last poem). But however great a poet Rabindranath may be, there is no fitting image of Shillong in ‘Sesher Kobita’. The reason for this is that he never developed a kinship with Shillong. However, Rabindranath being an intelligent person, by naming it ‘Sesher Kobita’ he meant it to be a poem rather than a novel. If someone wants to write a novel, one cannot do it by excluding the inhabitants of Shillong, especially hill tribes like the Khasis. In his description and in the treatment, there is absolutely no flavour of Shillong.
Author: Hemango Biswas
Hemanga Biswasa (14 December 1912 – 22 November 1987) was a Bengali singer, composer, author and communist activist, known for his advocacy of peoples music, drawing from genres of folk music. He was born in Habiganj, Sylhet, Assam Province, British India (now in Bangladesh).