Letters

The pale lights inside the airport

Look dull indeed.

Sleepy green, sombre -

Like the cover of a kalbaisakhi storm,

Or winter’s smog,

Keeping out the sun;

Like the silence of the city

On another state-wide strike

 

Come on Kolkata, I wonder,

Where is that intellectual push?

Why can’t you put up

A more glamorous show?

Like the razzmatazz of Bombay

Or the corridor of mudras in Delhi;

Something more –

Something that will make the world notice

 

 

The escalator descends down

While I notice the ceiling up -

Giant calligraphic letters -

Bangla scribbles on the entire roof;

It takes me some time to recognise

And then, I smile -

Who else but Kobiguru

What else but Geetanjali

 

Of course, as always

You don’t say a lot,

Yet so many thoughts layer

In your richest colours,

Appear grey and green

For those who do not know you -

For those who do,

Tagore blesses from above

 

Showering poems and songs

One petalled letter at a time;

A fresco of a manuscript

Bedecks the roof above

Below, the palimpsest of a city

Awaits in dull, green lights

The loudspeaker crackles,

‘Welcome to Netaji Subhas International Airport…’

 

17^th July 2026

 

The ceiling of the departure concourse at Kolkata's airport is one of its most distinctive architectural features. Rather than using conventional decorative panels, the designers transformed the vast ceiling into a giant artwork inspired by Rabindranath Tagore's handwritten manuscript of Gitanjali. Flowing Bengali calligraphy stretches across the roof in sweeping black strokes against a light background, resembling pages of an illuminated manuscript unfurled overhead. From a distance, the script appears almost abstract—like birds in flight, river currents, or decorative patterns—but as one looks closer, individual Bengali letters begin to emerge, revealing verses from Tagore's Nobel Prize-winning work. The effect is both monumental and intimate: travellers walk beneath a canopy of poetry, often without immediately realising that they are passing under one of Bengal's greatest literary treasures.