Today is 21 April - 132nd Death Anniversary of Tagore's 'Natun
Bouthan' Kadambari Devi. She attempted to commit suicide by taking
overdose of opium on 19 April, 1884 and passed away just two days
later 21 April, 1884 at Jorasanko Thakur Bari.
When she died, Rabindranath was 23 and her age was 25. She was not
only Tagore's sister-in-law, she was his friend and playmate too. And
above all, within total 16 year's friendship she became the "total
support" of the poet's life. Much later, in the year 1917 the poet
wrote to another poet Amiya Chakraborty: "Once, when I was about your
age, I suffered a devastating sorrow, similar to your's now. A very
close relative of mine committed suicide, and she had been my life's
total support, right from childhood onward. And so with her unexpected
death it was as if the earth itself receded from beneath my feet, as
though the skies above me all went dark. My universe turned empty, my
ze...