For many a Calcuttan, winter is incomplete without a trip to Santiniketan. This is the first winter after Santiniketan has been declared a Unesco World Heritage site. And if it is the Visva-Bharati campus, the heart of Rabindranath Tagore’s Santiniketan, that draws you to Bolpur, then it makes little sense to put up miles away on the outskirts where most new properties are coming up.

Stay at the heart

The biggest advantage of a stay at Udichi Regency is its location. Tucked away in a quiet bylane off the chaos of the main thoroughfare (Goalpara Road), it is just across the Shyambati canal that marks the eastern border of Santiniketan. “We are 1km away from Kopai river and less than 2km from Chhatimtala,” said Supratim Banerjee, corporate sales and marketing manager of the resort, referring to Rabindranath’s father, Maharshi Debendranath Tagore’s favourite spot of meditation under a Chhatim tree which inspired him to purchase a tract of land in Bhubandanga village in 1863 and create a spiritual retreat that he named Santiniketan. His son would found an educational institute there in 1901, a seed that sprouted as Visva-Bharati much later, in 1921, eight years after he had won the Nobel prize in literature.

This means if you are a morning jogger, you can spot classes being held under the trees, just as Rabindranath had visualised them, at Patha Bhavana and its kindergarten wing Ananda Pathshala, right next to Chhatimtala.

A bungalow built and owned earlier by the artiste Ganesh Pyne which is now part of Udichi Regency

If you are travelling by train, the hotel is 10 minutes by Toto from Prantik station and 20 minutes from Bolpur station.

A 15-minute walk away from the hotel is Sonajhuri Haat, the open-air temporary bazaar that pops up daily with local artisans spreading out their cottage industry ware till the sun sets over the eroded red laterite soil landscape (khowai) that also lends the name Khowai Haat to the fair. Nestled amid acacia trees (called sonajhuri, or droplets of gold, because of its clusters of yellow flowers) and surrounded by a sentry of sal, teak and eucalyptus trees, the haat adds to the charm of Santiniketan.

The beginning

Despite being so centrally located, Udichi Regency is a relatively new property. “We built it from scratch on land that our mother Sonali Dutta had acquired years ago, in 1996. The hotel opened during the pandemic, in November 2021, and was then developed in phases. First we had lodging facility, then the restaurant was added. Now we have a banquet hall, named Uma, that we let out,” said joint managing director Indradeep Dutta, the younger son of the founder Ganesh Dutta. The hotel reached the current state of readiness in 2023.

The banquet hall can accommodate 40-50 people and there are options to light a bonfire on the lawn outside on winter evenings. While the catering for events is done by the hotel kitchen, one can bring liquor from outside as long as it is consumed indoors, said a hotel official.

The main complex of the hotel, built on 34 cottahs, has three wings, of which two, called Urmika and Uttalika, face each other and have 16 double-bed rooms. The central wing with the reception on the ground floor has a five-bed room on both floors. The other two rooms here have three and four beds respectively.

There is an infinity swimming pool on the roof, about 6ft deep, with a baby pool at a side that is more like a water tank, where little ones can splash about without a worry.

A room in the Ganesh Pyne bungalow

Brush with Pyne

A significant addition to the property was made in 2023 when the Duttas purchased a bungalow on 10 cottahs right next to the hotel. The house originally belonged to Ganesh Pyne, the renowned artist, though it had passed through other hands. “The two-storeyed house has been kept exactly as it was in Pyne’s time even by the previous owners. Not even the colour of the outer walls has been changed from the time we passed by it as children,” affirmed the gardener, Swapan Das, who grew up in Uttarpally itself.

Giving t2 a tour of the bungalow, Banerjee pointed out that the structure was without a single pillar. “It’s all brickwork,” he marvelled. “He left behind some of his wooden furniture too, like the dinner table set and the cabinets in the dining area. But what we most cherish is the painting that still hangs on the ground floor,” Banerjee said, pointing to a canvas bearing the signature of Pyne, one of the founders of the Society of Contemporary Artists of Calcutta and a pillar of the Bengal School of Art.

One can check into one of the four rooms in the bungalow, where the artist who was called the “painter of darkness” for his dark and brooding imagery, once lived. “For booking purpose, we have named the house Uttara. Only the bathrooms have been renovated,” Banerjee said.

The other visible change is unintentional. Standing in the middle of the lawn is a bougainvillea tree. “It used to bear flowers of seven hues and rose up to the first floor, forming a canopy. It was such a pretty sight that passersby would stop to click pictures from the road. A storm uprooted the tree last year. The part that has survived now bears flowers of only three hues,” said Swapan, the gardener, vowing to get the full spectrum of petals back by planting more varieties at the base.

The two rooms on the first floor are bigger than those on the ground and boarders can enjoy the garden view from the spacious verandah upstairs attached to one room.

The house with a big lawn across the road, named Uttirno, is also owned by the family. The quaint structure over 24 cottahs has three rooms which are rarely let out.

The greenery on the property deserves special mention. An Adenium bonsai greets the visitor while stepping into the reception. It stands in a bed of Moses-in-the-cradle herbs and is surrounded by Petunia of various colours. The columns on the porch are in the embrace of climbing vines. Vertical gardening has also been initiated on the banquet wall, with ivy vines cascading down the facade from the roof.

A painting bearing Ganesh Pyne's signature on the wall of a bungalow built by the artiste which is now a part of Udichi Regency

The Ganesh Pyne bungalow is approached by passing under a clockvine arch. It leads to a basin of water lily. A strip of land along the walls rears several flowering plants.

There are also two vegetable patches, too, which grow cabbage, brinjal, coriander, tomato and spinach.

If Swapan is the green thumb at work in the lawns, Chef Kalipada Maiti is in charge of the kitchen. The man from Midnapore is as deft rustling up simple non-spicy home-style Bengali food on request as he is in producing the tandoor, Chinese, Indian and Continental items on the menu.

The owners take pride in not hiking prices in season. “Our rate card stays the same. Just because the holidays are on, we do not want guests to feel that they are being fleeced,” said Subhadeep Dutta, managing director.