The opening page read the same as the cover but this time in black ink with the addition- ‘Budapest, 26 Kartik, 1333’ (10 November 1926 in the English calendar). Inside, there were 70- odd pages (some left blank to serve as separators) of fragile yellowing paper, and Tagore’s unmistakable handwriting in Bengali and English, neatly arranged in his unique way of writing verses, with animal-like pen-and-ink doodles running over his corrections.

The cover read ‘ Lekhan Sri Rabindranath Thakur’ in Bengali. Along with the essay, in the trunk was a small withering lithographic manuscript bearing a signature of Tagore in gold ink. The essay, which appeared in the 25 January 1997 edition, mentioned Tagore including a few poems by Priyambada among his own notebook of poems Lekhan. It was an essay by Partha Basu titled Byartho Raater Tara which made a critical assessment of the works of Priyambada Devi, a contemporary litterateur of Tagore. There was also an undated tear-out from a Bengali magazine Desh.

Inside the trunk, there were a few ancient clay coins, an English punching machine dated 1835, old British stamps, a small silver aphrodisiac container from the reign of Bengal ruler Ballal Sen (1159- 79 CE), an antique copper kosha (water dispenser), a one-mouthed rudraksh bead, the first printed edition of Tagore’s poems, Sphoolinga, a rare Pashmina shaaler-sari (shawl sari), a printed 1903 edition of Abraham Lincoln’s autobiography, an old Bengali edition of Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat in colour, a kushti stone plate with a footprint of Vishnu and the second edition of Alice in Wonderland printed in London in 1946. Having failed to break the lock after several attempts, he hired a locksmith from across the Ganga in Hooghly district. The mention of Tagore aroused his curiosity.

It had changed a few hands through the generations. He was told the trunk was a gift to the family from Nandita Kripalini, granddaughter of Rabindranath Tagore. The small and heavy iron chest bore no insignia and was sealed with a sturdy egg-shaped lock. In the late 1990s, a 17-year-old youth in north Calcutta inherited an olive green trunk from his maternal uncle. How he ‘inadvertently’ put another poet’s works in his collection and why the episode remained unknown Walt Whitmaner Nirbachita Kabita : A bilingual collection of selected poems by Walt Whitman (in Bengali and English) (2nd ed.). Kazi Nazrul Islam The Voice of Poetry and the Struggle for Human Wholeness. 'Kazi Nazrul Islam: His Revolt and Love'. ^ 'A tribute to Bengal's rebel and revolution'.Flaming Flower: Poets' Response to the Emergence of Bangladesh (1st ed.).

Bidroho poem