Rabindranath Tagore one of the first celebrity air travellers of India

You've heard of test driving before selecting a car, but have you heard of or even imagined a test flight before undertaking a flight?

- SOMEN SENGUPTA

Impossible as it may sound, but that was exactly a reality in the city of Calcutta when a foreign airline company with direct support from its origin country's government arranged one for a very special passenger only to check his level of comfort in air travel at the ripe age of seventy-one. The very special potential passenger was Rabindranath Tagore, then India's one of the top global faces, along with Gandhi.

Tagore was too frequent to travel abroad from his teenage days, and by the time he reached his late sixties, he had made countless trips to many countries across Europe, North and South America, and Asia. His health started failing at the end of 1930 after his visit to Russia and America, and he slowed down in his travels abroad.

When he was almost settled with this painful reality that he would not be able to travel abroad anymore, he received a royal invitation from the Sultan of Iran, Rahlavi Reja Shah, to visit his country as a royal guest. Initially reluctant but engrossed with the temptation of seeing a new land and the chance of knowing new people with a new culture, Tagore finally accepted the invitation with the tough condition of travelling by air from Calcutta, stopping in Allahabad, Jodhpur, Karachi, and finally the city in Iran. Travel by ship in that hot summer was not prescribed by his doctors, considering his age.

Tagore had his first experience travelling by air on 16 April 1921 when he, along with his son Rathindranath and daughter-in-law Pratima Devi, took a two-hour flight from London's Croydon airport to Paris. The aircraft that he travelled on was named Farman F.60 Goliath and owned by a French company named Campagine Des Grands Express Aeriens. It was one of the pioneering airline companies to start commercial flight service between London and Paris.

Tagore enjoyed the flight and had his wish to make a few more air trips, but they were not all realised.