Retracing the bond between Bengal and Lithuania, which has a sizeable number of Tagore enthusiasts, an Indian photographer has embarked on a road trail in the Northern European state capturing on frame the local people, their traditions and customs.
"The photographs were the result of six days fascinating road trail covering 1,110 kilometers in the Baltic state. Unravelling the fascinating and unknown country and its daily life," the intrepid photographer Kounteya Sinha said.
The exhibition featured nearly thirty photographs.
Named 6262, the one-day photography exhibition acts as the bridge between Bengal and Lithuania with the distance between Tagore's abode Santiniketan and Lithuanian capital being over 6200 km, Kounteya said.
Among the 30-odd titles one brings forth the real life story of a 91-year-old woman who woke up one morning after being married to her husband for over 40 years to stumble upon a chest filled with hand written notebooks. These were all translations of Tagore's work into Lithuanian that the man had been carried out in secret all his life.
"It was amazing how people of Lithunia were revential towards Tagore. Many of his works had been translated in their language." Kounteya said also recalling the posthumous D Lit awarded to Lithuanian traveler and anthropologist Antanas Poska who undertook an amazing journey to India on a motor bike all the way from Vilnius in 1929.
Poska's daughter had come to Kolkata to receive the D Lit from the Governor of West Bengal.
"We feel proud to host the exhibition showing the great cultural impact of India on the European Union member," entrepreneur-socialite Madhu Neotia said.
