Barrackpore, a quaint town just about 25 kms from Calcutta is a place replete with British history. The oldest cantonment of India, it was a place transformed into a private space by the British, a place which was fashioned to look like the English countryside with landscaped gardens, rolling grounds , an aviary, a menagerie and many water bodies. It had become a favourite retreat for the many English residents stationed in Calcutta including Lady Canning whose name is almost synonymous with Barrackpore. She wrote in one of her journals " The house faces a great reach of the river and is crooked to the bank. I want to set it straight to the eye by making another walk at the same angle. I have opened to view a beautiful Banyan of late hidden by shrubs.
Today a few members of CHC had the privilege of taking a tour around the heritage of Barrackpore by none other than Me. Soumen Mitra , a senior IPS officer who while being posted at the West Bengal Police Training Branch had taken up the restoration of the Government House and garden that had been a police hospital after independence which was languishing in despair and slowly fading away from public memory. It was such a pleasure to see the love and responsibility that went into the restoration work. Such immense history which was lying buried in the mud and debris - the Minto fountain , the Lotus Fountain , the Moti Jheel has been carefully resurrected by his efforts and now the onus lies on us to join hands with him and restore the other elements left there.