On a curve of the road above Kurseong, in the Giddapahar area, stands a plain hill house that once belonged to Sarat Chandra Bose, an elder brother of Subhas Chandra Bose. In the late 1930s the British government interned Subhas Bose in this house, keeping one of the most prominent leaders of the freedom movement far from Calcutta.
Bose later escaped India in 1941, in disguise, and went on to lead the Indian National Army. The house in Kurseong became a museum and the home of the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Institute of Asiatic Studies. Visitors can walk through the rooms where he spent that time, looking out over the same valley he would have seen.
Inside are photographs of the Indian National Army, copies of letters between Bose and Emilie Schenkl, who became his wife, and personal belongings of the Bose family. The rooms are simple, and the view from the windows is across the valley towards the plains. It is a small museum, and a visit takes under an hour.
Locals still point out the house when the toy train or jeeps pass below. For many in Kurseong it is a reminder that their small tea town has a place in the story of Indian independence. Schoolchildren come on study trips, and travellers from Bengal often make the short detour from Hill Cart Road to pay their respects.
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Legends are retold differently from village to village. Where a story is told locally rather than written down, we say so.
