The temperature then shoots well above 40 degrees and you do not want to be around when that happens. Summers will not be an ideal time to be here. We went there in February, which incidentally is a good time to visit as the weather is pleasant. Then, after a quick lunch, we began the second and more anticipated part of our tour – Kopai Nodi, Shonibaarer Haat and Sonajhuri. My friends and I were on our maiden Shantiniketan trip, which began with an excruciatingly slow rikshaw ride to our hotel, kochuri for breakfast, and a tour through some of the nearby spots in the town. So when the TOTO driver recited an entire poem, which I had read in school and conveniently forgotten, I tried my best not to roll my eyes.

Most of us do not want to be at the receiving end of the gross generalization of what a Bengali intellectual is like – women in big bindis, terracotta earrings, geek glasses, kurtas, carrying jhola, smoking cigarettes and flaunting a smug expression, who are expected to break into a poetry or two, hum rabindra sangeet or debate over Russian writers like a pro – which is too much pressure, if you ask me. Now, you’d have to be a Bengali to understand the problem in being referred to as an ‘intellectual’ in a city full of intellectuals. Maybe because when it comes to weekend trips, the beach or the hills always seemed like the more logical choice compared to this tiny town with the notorious reputation of being the den of intellectual Bengalis – or to use the more colloquial term – aantels. And yet, this was the first time I was visiting it, after living in Kolkata for more than 2 decades. This famous abode of Rabindranath Tagore, is just 166 kms away from Kolkata, located near Bolpur in Birbhum district of West Bengal. Followed by the actual answer – Kopai Nodi (Kopai River). In answer, he recited this poem that was based on the place we were going to. I had asked our TOTO driver about where he was taking us. In the month of Baisakh it only has knee deep waters] [Our small stream moves forward in bends and curves

Amader choto nodi