My Reminiscences
Rabindranath Tagore, 1917
A poet looks back on a childhood spent watching the world through gaps in a Calcutta house, and the journeys that finally let him out into it.
Story map
4 chapters, one picture each
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Chapter 1
Within and Without
Kept indoors by the household servants, a small boy watches the outside world through the gaps in a big Calcutta house. A banyan tree, a pond and the rooftops feel close enough to touch and impossible to reach.
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Chapter 2
A Journey with My Father
His exacting father asks if he would like to travel to the Himalayas, and the boy can barely contain his joy. He sets off in his first proper suit, with a velvet cap he keeps slipping off his shaven head.
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Chapter 3
At the Himalayas
Carried up through flowering hill terraces, he wants to stop at every waterfall. His father keeps strict mornings of prayer and icy baths, and trusts him with the travel cash box, a test he once fails.
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Chapter 4
England
At seventeen he sails for England and writes boastful letters home he later regrets. Then, one moonlit evening in Brighton, he steps outside and sees snow for the first time.
Who will love it
Readers who love quiet, generous memoirs about how an artist learned to see.