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Chhayabrita, Santiniketan (2026)

29/05/2026

The Otherworldly Beauty of a Paraselenic Night at Chhayabrita.

The weather's going to be cloudy on the morrow as the paraselene indicates. It's not a rare phenomenon, this, where you see a spot like a smaller moon to each side of the actual 'chand' which today seems to be shining brighter than usual over Birbhum. Or is it just Chhayabrita working its usual nocturnal magic upon us and making each night memorable in a differently beautiful way?
On the eve of a summer full-moon night in Shantiniketan, a photograph taken from the landing of the staircase to the first floor Terrace Room seems to relay the extramundane atmosphere your own little home in Shantiniketan is swathed in.
Through the bamboo grove, set alight by a phone-flash, and the silhouetted trees beyond, the night sky appears a griseous vignette in which shines the moondog in untiringly luminous silver. There'll be rain soon, maybe in the early hours of the morning with the sun still not up. Or perhaps it'll just be cloudy through the day with a chance of intermittent downpours. But these are later concerns. For now, let's just enjoy this paraselenic night at Chhayabrita in all its otherworldly beauty.

26/05/2026

At Chhayabrita, Amidst Renovations, the Torch Tree is in Full Bloom.

The Torch Tree’s flowers, always in globular clusters, are by fragrance unmistakable. And when the tree (more a shrub, really) is in full bloom, as you see in the picture, that sweet and intoxicating scent all but overpowers you as you come in proximity of the plant.
Those on the first floor room on the roof, take heed, or else you’ll find yourself ever so slightly tipsy by the time you’ve reached the head of the stairs from the dining hall, evenings being particularly dangerous because that’s when the fragrance is the strongest.
The busyness of renovations notwithstanding, nature takes its own course in its own time, and for the Torch Tree (there are two ; this one’s a graft from the original which stands a little away among the mango trees and is also flowering splendidly) its showtime now!

23/05/2026

Rejuvenating Chhayabrita — A Renovation Five-Year-Plan

We deliberately choose a certain paint that fades and acquires fungus over a three-to-four-year period so that the building ages gracefully and then is rejuvenated with fresh repairs and a new coat of paint in a completely different combination from the last one.

We’ve been delayed by one-and-a-half years this time round because the paint of our choice was no longer available in Bengal and couldn’t be acquired from the company’s head office in Bombay as they refused to ship such a small quantity. This tussle went on for months and, at last, in March they took the order and consigned the colours from Maharashtra.

Was it worth the wait (the last time we painted the house was in 2018)? We think so, because the emulsion is granular and the effect after drying is rough but soft, like clothing Chhayabrita in an oft-used cheesecloth.

In the picture, surface cracks to the plaster are being repaired, but after a coat of primer has been applied. And after these vulnerable areas are re-plastered, another coat of primer will be added and only then will the actual repainting begin.
Anyway, this is just to show you how slowly work’s progressing so that you may not hazard a booking till mid-June by which time your own little home in Shantiniketan, Chhayabrita, will be ready to welcome you again.

17/05/2026

Fruits of Chhayabrita : Mangoes, Ripening in a Calescent May

You're viewing one of a trio of trees on the south-west periphery of Chhayabrita, across from the side windows of the Baroghar, laden with young-ish fruit. Suffice it to say that Birbhum summers are nigh intolerable, but for mangoes it's like a boon, this season. The heat matures the aam completely, evenly and quickly so that they're not at the mercy of any late nor'westers and can be plucked off their stems before they become overripe.
The Chhayabrita new variety doesn't lay claim to be anything exclusive but it's sweet of flesh and fragrant too, not entirely unlike the hallowed Himsagar.
But, really, the proof of the pie is in the eating. You must come and taste some of the gaachh-paka aam i.e mangoes that have ripened naturally on the trees.
You can also, if you're the kind that likes a certain tartness about their fruit, pluck a few now and ask Ashadul to make you a tok-mishti chutney or aamer-jhol.
During this calescent part of the month, partake of the varied treasures of Chhayabrita, starting with the young mangoes. Come. Soon.

14/05/2026

In and Around Shantiniketan : Surul Rajbari

If you do decide to come to Shantiniketan in summer and are in a mind not to shop at the various and many markets that have sprung up all over town — especially the Sonajhuri Haat or Shanibarer Haat which, as the latter title indicates, was a 'Saturdays Only' affair till commercial interests took over and it became a secundan market for traded goods — you might venture a couple of kilometres away from Sriniketan to arrive at the quaint village-town called Surul, the claim to fame of which centers around the imperious and rather awfully painted Rajbari.

The neighbourhood's strangely quiet and the trappings of the mansion aren't in any way reminiscent of the grandeur of Northern- or Southern-Indian palaces, though the length of the facade is notable. Inside too it's bland and with scarcely any features (except the well-maintained 'kori-borga' of the ceilings) worth mentioning but there's a certain calmness and coolness about the place that's very endearing and makes you stay on for a while longer than you thought you would.

The self-aggrandising 'Rajbari' of Surul is at best a zamindar's indulgent mansion with the mandatory thakur-dalan that comes alive during the Pujas every year when it, and the Puja, is opened to the public. Still, it's a mansion the likes of which would be very difficult to come by in and around Birbhum.
So for now, as summer's turning up its heat, when you visit Shantiniketan, tell your toto-driver to bring you to the Rajbari at Surul. Just don't come expecting lavishness and sophistication. It's more the little pleasures, like sitting on an exedra inside the palace in cool tranquility, that make for pleasant memories.

03/05/2026

The Idyll of a Wet Summer Afternoon in Shantiniketan.

What idyll can you expect of a University town that’s lost all its charm to reckless urbanisation and rapacious land development?
At Chhayabrita, on a summer’s afternoon, after lunch and on the verge of a siesta when it begins to rain and then becomes a regular downpour, the Baro-ghar windows, with their café curtains parted, overlooking the garden afford a view salvific to any soul searching for the real Shantiniketan because this, here, is where the place, where Birbhum, is at its most beautiful and veracious.
Experience aestival rain from Chhayabrita’s Shantiniketan to know how beauteous and bucolic and bountiful this town and its climate is for you.
Chhayabrita calls you to the unique idyll of a wet summer’s afternoon in Shantiniketan.

29/04/2026

A Raindrop on a Summer's Day, at Chhayabrita.

Summer rain is always beautiful. And here as evidence of just such a downpour is this solitary drop of water poised on the verge of falling and disappearing into the pebbled path.
But this could as well be a brumal scene, with the raindrop transforming itself into dew.
Whatever it is, that's the beauty of Chhayabrita : merging the seasons at will. It's beautiful. And magical.
Try it, and feel your own little home in Shantinketan beckon you to visit.

23/04/2026

Fruits of Chhayabrita — Enchor, Anyone?

The Chhayabrita kanthal trees, all four of them, are fruiting as usual but especially the large, hoary one on the southeast side and the two adjacent to the thatched cottage.
Here are the raw fruits willingly displaying themselves for picking if you want the freshest ever Enchorer Dalna or perhaps a Kofta Curry in which the lozenges of spiced jackfruit paste virtually disappear in your mouth before you can say ‘kanthaaal!’
In whichever way you cook them, the Chhayabrita enchors do justice to those taste buds that are discerning enough to know how pleasurable and truly delightful victuals made from freshly picked home fruit taste vis-à-vis those bought from the general bazaars.
This summer treat may not be the only reason you come to Chhayabrita for, but for certain when you come don’t miss out on it.

19/04/2026

On Akshaya Tritiya, Your Chhayabrita Team of Three Greets You for the Nabobarsho.
Those whose news of Chhayabrita is au courant will know that Jahar’s married (we’d mentioned in our Poila Baisakh post of 2024 that Jahar was contemplating marriage with his lady-love as soon as he’d saved enough) now and living in a different location from his home because the girl’s parents haven’t consented to the wedding.
He’s therefore missing from the picture. In his place you’ll find Biswanath, all of twenty-one years of age, who’s just eloped with his seventeen-year-old girlfriend (she’s resumed school since their hasty marriage at Kankalitala) whom he met on Facebook just a couple of years ago. The parents of both the bride and the groom have been shocked into acceptance.
Jaya continues her battles that seem to be the sum-and-substance of her home front, what with her gormless son-in-law needing constant pecuniary support.
As for Ashadul, he’s having to deal with Mr.Siddique’s continuous confinement to bed, his daughter’s further education in the light of relatives demanding she get married, and his farmland and residence matters that hitherto his late Kaka used to manage.
Despite their worries and responsibilities related to ‘sangsar’ and ‘samaj’, its their Chhayabrita family, which is You, and the society of kindly souls like You who visit continually that they give their heart and soul to so that Chhayabrita remains to all a desideratum of a home with a garden and trees such that you exprerience it as the empyrean of Your dreams.
It’s earnest care, rustic but authentic, that you’ll feel in their service. No hotel management degree or formal training can be traced to their kind of attentiveness to your needs. It’s what comes from within.
Today, on this auspicious day, the Chhayabrita trio wishes you a very Shubho Nabobarsho. The mantra within their heart is for your peace and well-being. And with folded hands they request the blessings of your presence at home in Shantiniketan, always and forever.

11/04/2026

A Chhayabrita Pastoral in Chiaroscuro

It’s not unwise to be a noceur when you’re at Chhayabrita’s Shantiniketan because there’s so much of the nighttime beauty of the place that reveals itself in the light and shade of the garden when you’re resident on the ground floor of the house.
This view from the verandah was shot around 8pm, when most of Jambuni has retired to the evening’s pleasures that comprise jol-khabar, perhaps a book (or more likely television, these days), some adda, and, more often than not, vespers.
Just relaxing and looking out over the garden and towards the lapis-lazuli sky as it turns from dusk to night is a treat for the senses. Do nothing, think nothing. Just feel the nocturnal world around you come alive, the electric shadows of the collapsible gates forming a lattice of light on the pebbled path like a softly glowing runway for magical creatures to land and bring to life the Bagan of the night.

This is a Shantiniketan you will not have experienced. But it’s mesmerising. Especially during this period on the brink of summer when a sudden evening thunderstorm cools the weather and wets the earth and charges the grass with unseasonal vigour.
Come, if you can.

Chhayabrita

29/05/2026

26/05/2026

23/05/2026

17/05/2026

14/05/2026

03/05/2026

29/04/2026

23/04/2026

19/04/2026

11/04/2026

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