Rabindranath narrated vividly his experiences in England in his book "Europe Prabasir Patra but it could not escape omission and commission done in his writings. May be, the fault is not due to him, responsibility may be assigned to Bharati during publishing.Incidents are not properly arranged as per dates of occurrences . Secondly, The dates in the letters are not mentioned." commented by Prasanta Kumar Pal in his book Rabijibani . [p-34, vol-II].
While staying in London Rabindranath attended some important lectures on different occasions with or without accompniment. On 7th Feb 1879, Rabindranath attended annual session National Indian Association with Satyendranath Thakur. When British Parliament was meeting in summer session , Rabindranath attended 2/3 days in the house of commons.
23rd May 1879, was his first visit in the house of Commons and he was disappointed in its performance. O'donnel an Irish Parliamentarian , doing many movements in favour of India, was speaking on the Indian Press act. But he was looked down upon and his proposal was turned down.He mentioned this after many days [1906] in his lecture in Don Society.
On another occasion , 12 Jan 1880 he attended another meeting in The house of Commons which satisfied him. The subjects on that day were "Tax on cotton goods in India" and "Afghan War" and the speakers were John Bright [right] and W.E. Gladstone .[left]
Rabindranath said that the no of times he had gone to the House of Commons , he had seen only 2 or 3
in the diplomatic gallery.
After finishing his days in London , he went to Tunbridge Wells of Kent County and felt happy for the place was a village and free from smokes and dust. London remains full of merry making from the beginning of Spring season to the first part of Summer season.
Rabindranath came to England mainly for becoming a barrister or an ICS, but his own mentality was like a visitors. Without mixing closely with the life style of England.Remaining from a distance he observed the socio-economic life style
of English people and express them in his writings critically. More so, he was not blind with the good aspects of the English people as the other Enga-Banga people do. Rabindranath mentioned two incidents of England in his life relating to the economically depressed people of England.
He wrote, " while going through the streets in Tunbridge Wells in winter, he saw a person standing by the side of the road. His legs are overlooking through the holes of his shoes. Here begging is obsolete. He did not ask anything from me but looked on to him.I gave him a coin which unimaginable to him. After a few minutes came hurriedly to me and said, sir, probably by mistake you have given me a gold coin and wanted to return it to me."
He mentioned this just to show the feeling and honesty of the poor wretched person of England.
The next incident occurred in Torquay station.
He came back to London from Tunbridge wells. In the mean time he received an intimation from his bauthan (wife of Satyendranath Thakur ) who was at that time Torquay of Devonshire.
Rabindranath bevcomes sad and described his days in this period in his book Europe Prabaser Patra, [12 th letter]. He wrote, when my eyes are charmed, mind drenched with joy, and the leisure-full days are flying in the blue sky with infinite pleasure, even at this time, my mind does not responding to any urge for writing poems. " To rectify this awkward situation he took a Khata and a pencil and an umbrella on head took a seat on a stone hanging on the sea he took the responsibility of doing his duty and wrote a poem titled "Magnatari ", published in Asharh, 1286 issue titled "Bhagnatari". It can be mentioned here that at this time Rabindranath's writings are published in Bharati. Rabindranath's last poem Apsara [gatha] is published in Falgoon , 1285, a gap of 1 year four months.
Rabindranath again came back to London from Torquay. At that time, Matriculation examination of University of London was held twice in a year, January and June. Probably he came back to London to sit for the Matriculation Examination in June 1879.
After returning in London he got his accommodation in a gentleman's family, namely Dr. Scott, at 10 Tavistock square. Mr. Scott lived with his wife and Four daughters, two sons three servants and a dog toby. The relation of Mr.Scott and his wife was not good. He always scolded the dog when wanted to do so with his wife.
Rabindranath came back to kolkata with Satyendranath Thakur and others without obtaining any degree, either an ICS or a Barrister in March 1880.
Rabindranath came to London in Sept 1878 and returned back to kolkata in Mar 1880. He stayed there for one and 1/2 years. He wrote a bunch of letters to Kadambari Debi "Titled Europe Jatrir Kono Ek bangiya yubaker Patra" which was publish by Dwijendranath with comments in Bharati.
During his stay in England he wrote another Kabya "Bhagna Hriday"
While going to England or staying there Rabindranath wrote letters to his friends and relatives which were published gradually in Bharati, Baishakh 1286.A total of 14 letters were published from Baishakh 1286 to Shraban 1287. Rabindranath wrote about these letters in jibansmriti, " I began to send letters to my relatives at first and then to Bharati. "
Pravat Kumar Mukhopadhyay wrote, " the letters were written to Kadambari Debi." Prof. Jagadish Bhattacharya wrote that the letters no.4th, 6th, 10th and 12th were written to Kadambari.
Bharati published writings of Rabindranath
Baishakh 1285
bhanusinger kabita [madhaba na kaha adara bani
Europe jatrir kono ek bangiya yubaker patra. see eurpe prabasir patra.
Bharati, jaishtha 1285
norman jati o anglo norman sahitya
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