Adra, Raghunathpur and Joychandi Pahar: 50 Year Old Memories Come Alive

This is another post with immediate family firmly in mind. A few other blog followers have also spent time in Adra and Raghunathpur and may especially appreciate the images. There are three slide shows. All images were taken last Friday during our visit to Adra and Raghunathpur. All were taken either by Lynn, or at least with her camera, because Paul had left the memory card for his camera in his computer in Kolkata!

T'he first slide show is of a walkabout in Adra--on both sides of the tracks. First there's the railway colony, which is remains a lovely place to live, little changed over the years. Then there's a walk along the Adra bazaar side of the tracks.

The second set of pictures starts on the 7 km ride from Adra to Raghunathpur, via the Joychandi rail crossing, by cycle rickshaw. Most of the photos in this long set are of the Raghunathpur mission compound. There has been considerable development on the compound over the years with the addition of a girls' boarding and Bengali medium school. The bungalow our family moved into in January of 1958, however, has hardly changed at all! Indeed, I remember much of the furniture!!! Since no one is currently living in the bungalow, we had free reign and enjoyed wonderful hospitality there.

Photos in the third show share our afternoon walk up to the relatively new temple on Joychandi Pahar. This outing was extra special because we were escorted by Assim Gope, his wife, two of his children, as well as a niece and nephew. Assim is the same age as Paul's brothers, and was a playmate on the compound when we lived in Raghunathpur. Assim's father Mangal was for many years the compound handyman. The street just outside what used to be the back gate of the compound is where Mangal's children have all built homes.