Shantiniketan

I went to Shantiniketan after my visit to Calcutta in December 2022. I had planned to do a fairly large West Bengal trip for a few weeks but the timing didn’t work out and I ended up having only six days free. With a short time frame and some work commitments that required good internet I decided to take it easy and just go for a Rajbari stay and a visit to Shantiniketan. These may not be the highlights of West Bengal, but I really enjoyed them, they gave a good flavor of rural Bengal, and they were a short distance and easy to get to from the city. Also, it must be said there is some extraordinary food to be had in Shantiniketan.

I wrote my Calcutta posts immediately after the trip, but I ran out of time to cover Shantiniketan then and forgot to pick it up soon after, so now I am writing this over a year later. Because of that it may not be as detailed or enthusiastic but don’t take that the wrong way.

I was excited to get some fresh air outside of the city, but sadly in winter the air was pretty bad even all the way in Shantiniketan.

Shantiniketan isn’t the most exciting place for those who don’t go with a special interest in Tagore, but it’s cool and kind of interesting. Laid back rural Bengal with an artistic and intellectual vibe. Probably a place that's best to go and relax in for at least a week, or to do a workshop or something. It's a nice place to sit around and read Bengali literature. A lot of people go on a kind of pilgrimage, but if you don’t care about Tagore it’s far from a must visit place. I had been curious to go ever since I first read about the school many years ago, and it was nice to finally see it. What nobody tells you, though, is that the food is extraordinary. I ate better Bengali food here than in Calcutta. Come for Tagore and stay for the food. Or better yet, vice versa. 

I stayed at Mitali Homestay, which was great. Very nice, comfortable accommodation in a nicely done up house, a good example of a “Shantiniketan Home” with its artwork and crafts and books, and there were even homemade soaps in the bathroom. There’s a crafts store on the premises and I believe the stuff there is made by the very hospitable owner Sukanya. If I recall correctly the wifi was very good, and I had no issues working here. It’s on a spacious, green property with a nice garden where they grow their produce. I forgot what I paid, maybe 6k a night including food? So not cheap, but I felt it was worth it partly because the food was so good, though you can eat here without staying here (I’ll cover the food later). I feel like Shantiniketan is a place where you definitely want to stay somewhere nice, so I'm happy I splurged to stay there. They said they give reduced prices if you come for a monthly stay. Pretty tempting if I ever decide to slow down and work on a bigger writing project.

So, what do you do in Santiniketan? Not much, but that’s kind of the point. Shantiniketan is of course known for its university founded by Tagore. You can’t tour the campus, but you can see it from the main road, including the very pretty Upasana Griha building. If you see a guy on a bike selling mishti doi and rabri, get them. One part of the historic section of the university is open to walk through, it has some cool architecture, neat sculptures, and a Tagore museum. It was nice to see the houses where Tagore lived. There’s some good stuff in the museum but it was too jam packed with people to be enjoyable. Like local train, bodies pressed together jam packed. Bengalis are intense with their Tagore love. This was on a Sunday morning between Christmas and New Year’s so maybe that is just the worst time to go. 

There isn’t much else. There was a nice banyan tree near there which was worth seeing. There is a small postal museum. There is the Gitanjali Cinema Hall in a kind of cool, unusual auditorium (I'm guessing it was built as a performing arts center, which it also functions as). 

Mainly, though, there are lots of arts and crafts things. Not totally my scene. I went with my wife to some pretty cool ceramics studios. I don’t remember what they were called. There are lots of nice textile places. There’s one nice cafe called Amoli. There’s a nice art gallery called Artshila, though the exhibit I went to wasn’t so interesting to me, it just depends on what's on. There's lots of stuff like that. Ask around when you're there.

There’s the weekend haat which was fun, they sell local crafts and snacks, don't miss the guy on the bike selling rabri and mishti doi (get both!). Other than that my favorite thing was just walking around in some foresty areas nearby. Also, you see some nice old houses while walking through the town. That’s really about it.

It was great reading some of Tagore’s short stories while I was here. I liked them a lot in Shantiniketan. Everywhere else I read them, they felt like homework…

Now for the food. I mentioned above that the food at Mitali’s was outstanding, and non-guests can eat there if they call in advance. If you aren’t staying here, definitely reach out at least a day early, if not sooner. We ate all of our breakfasts and dinners there as well as lunch when we got in on the first day, and since we were leaving before lunchtime on the last day they made us a nice khichdi. We left the menus up to the owner Sukanya and got a mix of meals, from classic Bengali dishes done perfectly, full of flavor with no excess oil, to a Chinese and Thai inspired meal, which was very good even if it isn’t what we came for. The best meal, though, was our lunch when we arrived which consisted of lesser known Bengali dishes, some inspired by the local tribal communities. It was insanely good, and it blew nearly every restaurant in Calcutta out of the water.

We had just as good food at Jetvan Peace Farm which we drove out to for lunch one day. It was a short rickshaw ride away from town and is very much worth it. This may have been the best Bengali meal I’ve ever had, though there were some Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern dishes as well. The woman who runs the farm is an excellent chef, and she brought at an insane amount of food for the two of us (at an absurdly reasonable 500inr per person, she should raise the prices if she hasn’t yet). The flavors were bold and rustic, and nothing was oily (I really gotta keep specifying this in Bengal…). You can also stay here and work on the farm if you wish to get your hands dirty. It’s a basic tent setup so not quite what I desire, but with food like this I’d be willing. We also enjoyed talking to the owner, whose name I forget, who left her life in the city behind to set up the farm and live out her dream. They also have a very sweet dog.

I am determined to go back to Shantiniketan to eat at Jetvan and Mitali’s again…

We also ate one lunch at the very popular Ghare Baire restaurant, where we had a solid thali, good flavors and not oily, that would have been impressive almost anywhere else, but after so much truly exceptional food it was merely serviceable. Still, recommended if you’re nearby, I’m probably underrating it, and they have a shop selling local crafts, like every place does. We bought their ghee, which has a sweet, caramelized aroma. 

I didn’t make it to the very famous Banalakshmi for thali, but that’s widely recommended. But don’t go there at least until you go to Jetvan and Mitali’s. I have also heard great things about Aarhani, which makes homemade food you can get for takeaway.

Also, as I mentioned earlier in certain areas (at the haat, at the university) there are guys on bikes selling mishti doi and rabri. These were excellent!