Tusker trail

Don’t tell the piggies, but the elephant banks, the owl banks and the giraffe banks were rather cute. I almost didn’t spot them at first — the lights were out at the souvenir shop in Amar Kutir in Santiniketan and the staff were indifferent — but when my 20-month-old nephew started making strange harrumphing noises, I figured there were elephants around. The shed across the courtyard that housed the leather craft unit was a friendlier place. A dozen or so women sat at their stations, patiently colouring strips of leather with designs stamped on them, unfazed by the rumpus outside — a bunch of langurs, clattering about on the tin roofs. Anyhow, I found it rather fitting that the leather menagerie had its home in Amar Kutir (literally, My Home), once a refuge for freedom fighters. Not that that stopped me from bringing some of them home (Rs 140 each).