Indrani Ghosh, the curator of Rabindra Bharati Museum in Tagore's house in Calcutta, has a lovely anecdote to share.

One afternoon in 2007, a Chinese gentleman visited. He took his time doing the rounds of the galleries, often pausing in front of a painting or personal effects of the poet to make mental notes.

He dropped by the curator's office on his way out, telling her how rewarding his trip to Tagore's home was. And then the mild-mannered man asked, if there was such a fine gallery documenting Tagore's visits to Japan, why couldn't there be one of the poet's Chinese connections?

Ghosh informed him the Japan gallery was built with Japanese funds. A few months later, Mao Siwei, the first Chinese consul general in Calcutta - for that was the self-effacing Chinese gentleman's name - returned with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.

Yang was also moved by what he saw. Soon, Karunasindhu Das, the vice-chancellor of the university, named after Tagore, which also runs the Tagore Museum, wrote to Yang asking for support to build a gallery on Tagore and China.

Not long after, respondents from Yang's office sent a note, saying $117,450 had been sanctioned.

Ghosh is now frenetically trying to collect photographs, citations, indeed anything at all related to Tagore's China visits in 1924 and 1929.

"Tagore always had a special place in his heart for China. He believed two very disparate nations could be brought nearer through cultural exchanges," Ghosh says.