Amader Shantiniketan (From One of India's Foremost Hindi Writers)

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About the Book This charming memoir is a loving homage to a grand institution and its legendary gurus. Written from the perspective of a child and young girl, it retains the freshness and innocence of an age when experimental education was not merely a trendy movement. Shivani's vivid pictures of Shantiniketan and portraits of her teachers and fellow students remain as alive as they seemed when she first wrote this memoir nearly fifty years ago. Along with the moving tributes she wrote when some of her beloved contemporaries passed away, this slim memoir is a sort of diptych that captures the spirit of the Ashram and the liveliness of its inmates, many of whom went on to become iconic Indians. Shivani's recall of her time there takes the reader into an enchanted garden that remains as inspirational to her as it was when she went there all the way from Kumaon a lifetime ago.

Introduction Amader Shantiniketan was written by our mother, Shivani, sometime in the early 1960s and published by New Age Publishers, Calcutta. Although I do not remember that time very clearly, I am pretty sure that it was neither circulated widely nor promoted, since in those days books were never pushed as aggressively as they are now. The publishers also never thought it necessary to give Shivani a royalty, information about any subsequent editions or details of sales. Shivani was a strangely trusting soul and once she handed over a book to a publisher, she seldom inquired about how it was doing or whether it had been reviewed. So that was that.

Mercifully, the publishers shut shop one day and, quite in keeping with their quaint work ethic, did not think it fit to inform Shivani of what would happen to her book. There was another twist in this tale: my mother always wrote by hand and submitted a handwritten manuscript to her publishers without bothering to keep a copy. I have no idea how she managed to get another publisher to bring out a fresh edition.