The story goes that sick and tired of hearing God Save the Queen at all official events and functions, 19th century writer Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay decided to pen the lyrics of Bande Mataram. Those days Bankim was serving as the deputy collector of Howrah. After attending one such ceremony in his homestead, Kanthalpara, 40 kilometres north of Calcutta, the rationalist and patriot hurried home and composed 12 lines at one go. (The part of the story that concerns the 12 lines is endorsed by Sabyasachi Bhattacharya's research in his book, Vande Mataram: The Biography of a Song.) They begin -- "Sujalam suphalam/Malayaja-sitalam/Sasya-syamala /Mataram/ Bande Mataram...' Bankim had used highly Sanskritised Bengali to describe his mother country in all her splendour. The English translation by Aurobindo Ghose goes, "I bow to thee, Mother,/Richly-watered, richly-fruited,/Cool with the winds of the south,/Dark with the crops of the harvests."