Lyric and background history of song tumi ki keboli chhobi

Parjaay: Bichitro (76)

Taal: Kaharwa

Raag: Kanara

Written on: 1914

Swarabitan: 30

Notation by: Dinendranath Tagore

Notes: This was written on 20th October, 1914 at Allahabad and the melody was composed in December, 1931.

Rabindranath had been to Allahabad in October, 1914 where he stayed for about three weeks with Pyarilal Bandyopadhyay in his delightful residence surrounded by gardens. Pyarilal was the son in law of his his nephew, Satyaprasad Gangopadhyay. He had written the concluding poem of ‘Geetali’ – ‘Ei tirthodebotar dharonir mondir-prangone ...’. He had penned more than a hundred poems in the three months prior to his visit. His mind was completely engrossed in poems. One day he could spot a picture on the wall of this house. The worn out image was of someone beloved. Suddenly his mind gave up to come out of the flurry of Geetali and he wrote this poem in a complete different style.

This picture has been at the centre of the debate on whose image could it be. Although a few people had opined in favour of Mrinalini-devi or Kadambari-devi, Probhatkumar Mukhopadhyay in his ‘Rabindra-jiboni’ has expressed that it may not have been someone very much familiar. Rabindranath had written a poem ‘Shahjahan’ without visiting Agra a couple of day after this one. This song may have followed the same course.

Moitreyee devi in her book ‘Swarger Kachhakachhi’ has said –

... I remember when he was explaining the poem ‘Chhobi’ to a little girl. He was telling – ‘Once I had found a picture while staying at Allahabad with Satya – I wondered – the person, who had existed like a truth couple of days ago, occupying a considerable amount of space in our life, can now only be found long distance away. Our life continues with the same pace – while that of the person had come to a grinding halt. Memories too fade out – yet – did I forget you? True, I did reliquish, but to which scale? I need not to remember you too often as you remain widely spread across my life. Do we always need to be conscious about our eyes – that we have eyes? Although it is the eye that enables us to behold. Similarly I do not remember you often, but you had once strongly existed within the core of my life. And that is the reason for which my life has been so blissful and elegant. ...

Prasantachandra Mahalanabish had written in Visvabharati Partika –

... The poet had stayed with his nephew at Allahabad in the month of Kartik,1321B for a few days. I had learnt it fro the poet himself that he had seen a worn out photograph of ‘Notun Bouthan’, wife of Jyotirindranath in this house. He had penned down ‘Chhobi’, a poem for ‘Balaka’ after he had seen this photograph. ...

A melody for this song was composed much later, on the occasion of his seventieth birthday, fifteen years after the poem had been written. It was sung as a part of ‘Shap-mochan’ for the first time on 31st december, 1931.