Suriel bungalow, the place where Rabindranath Tagore stayed during his first visit to Mungpoo in 1938, was gutted in a fire in 1986.

This Diwali, memories of Tagore are set to be rekindled at the remnants of the bungalow, situated some 30km from Darjeeling, with a book launch.

Suraj Sharma, an author from Darjeeling, has translated 15 short stories from Tagore’s Golpoguccho in Nepali titled Rabindranath ka Kathaharu (Stories of Rabindranath).

"I intend to launch the book from Suriel bungalow,” Sharma told The Telegraph.

During his first visit to Mungpoo in 1938, Tagore stayed at Suriel bungalow, the guesthouse of the cinchona plantation then. He was a guest of Manmohan Sen, the director of the plantation, and his wife, writer Maitreyi Devi.

Tagore visited Mungpoo three more times but then stayed at Sen’s official bungalow, now a museum called Rabindra Bhavan.

During his stay in Mungpoo, Tagore wrote several poems, which were featured in various collections later.

The memoirs of Tagore’s stay in Mungpoo were written by Maitreyi Devi in her book Mungpoote Rabindranath, with the English translation Tagore by Fireside.

"However, Nepali readers have not been exposed much to Tagore’s writing, which is why I decided to translate some of his stories that had touched me early in life,” said Sharma, an Indian Gorkha who studied Bengali at Darjeeling Government High School.

Sharma has translated Nepali authors into Bengali too.

“I am trying to introduce some great works from both languages to each other,” the translator said.