A google search will tell you that both Rabindranath Thakur and Satyajit Ray had been to Chicago, USA on multiple occasions, at different times. The follow-up question is,whether if, they had boarded a Greyhound bus from Chicago which took them on I-90 and I-94 to Twin Cities or not ? Knowing fully well, that not every day of their US days are documented; let's create a window of fantasy, assuming that they had been to Twin Cities. Okay, Greyhound is too austere to be true, let us put them on Amtrak instead :-)
Firstly, let's pick up the Big Guy, the Rabindranath. It can be confidently rumored, that during his visit in Mid-West, he was terribly disgusted with the likes of Al-Capone and John Dilinger and their exploits, so he wanted to be away from the wilder terrains and in search of solitude, he ventured for upper Mid-west on Amtrak. The Great Depression was then too strong in its colors in cities like Chicago. The shores of Superior, the Ten Thousand Lakes must have offered him a greater and a calmer distraction to him, then. He must have dropped by Walker Art Center, stalked around Nicollet Avenue and must have had a steamy coffee on Lake Harriet. He must have visited the University Premises as well, looked at the sprawling lawns and must have felt strongly, can I set up a student-exchange program with Visva Bharati, can I ? should I ? "No, I shouldn't", he must have checked himself fearing that such a step might incite provoking questions from the swadeshis back at home," How could you do this to us, Gurudev; we are fighting with our blood to outsted the imperialist powers and how could you think of bringing in foreign investment/equity at this point of time ?" That will explain why Rabindranath had been in Twin Cities, yet there hadn't been a tie-up between Visva Bharati and University of Minnesota, but then, how could you never find a reference of "Minnehaha Falls" or of such kind in any of his works ? Is that even possible that Gurudev will forget to pen down some lines, which he normally never did. He needed to feel slightest of the Nordic breeze, to dip his pen in the ink-pot.
"Arey boka, University-er Bookstore-tai bondho chilo tokhon, Gurudev eshchilen shoni-robbar korey, dokaan paat shob bondho, tar opor money rakhish tokhon abar Great Depression cholche, kagoj-kolom-ta uni kinben kor thekey amai bolte parish tui?? tayi toh uni kono kobita ba golpo likhe jetey paaren ni re kono bhabei."
..................(to be continued on next part, how Satyajit Ray almost ended up opening a Rabindra Bhavan and Nandan in Minneapolis.)
