Asked for directions to the birth place of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, a 14-year-old points to a nearby shopowner. That is pretty much in keeping with the general trend in this part of the world. The elderly shopowner overhears us, smiles and obliges.
In a narrow lane leading to the Oriya Bazar with the boundary of the old Dargah Bazar jail on one side and the newly-built shopping mall and the Purani Talaab on the other, stands a two-storey white building with a signboard and a plaque saying Netaji Birthplace Museum.
The Orissa government began the campaign to convert the Janakinath Bhavan, Bose’s ancestral place, into a national museum in 2003 after declaring the house a heritage building in 1991.
The Indian National Trust for Art and Culture with funding from the centre got the work done and the musuem was opened in 2007.
Work has begun on the construction of a gate at the Dargah Bazar crossing and it will be inaugurated on January 23, 2010, the 113th birth anniversary of Bose.
The building complex consists of a main block and a small temple at the back. And where the stables once stood is now a statue of a horse drawing a cart.
{{/usCountry}}The building complex consists of a main block and a small temple at the back. And where the stables once stood is now a statue of a horse drawing a cart.
{{/usCountry}}Rooms on the first floor have been converted into exhibition rooms and in one of them, visitors can see a short documentary on the national hero.
The museum showcases 22 original letters written by Bose to his parents from Geneva, Milan, Shillong, Mandalay Jail, Rangoon Jail, Presidency Jail, Alipore Central Jail and Berlin.
There is the bed where he slept during his school days.
Bose studied at the Stewart School and the Ravenshaw Collegiate School here till he was 16 before moving to Kolkata for further studies.
Other exhibits include a sword used by him and one of his Indian National Army uniforms.
We soon have company as visitors start trickling in. A father asks his four-year-old son to touch the ground with his forehead before getting in, just like one would do before entering a temple.