Pabna, Rajshahi
The childhood home in Pabna town of Suchitra Sen, the great star of Bengali cinema, now kept as a memorial to her.
Suchitra Sen, born Roma Dasgupta in 1931, grew up in this house in Pabna, where her father worked, and went to school in the town. After Partition the family moved to India, and in the 1950s she became the leading lady of Bengali cinema, above all in her films with Uttam Kumar. She also acted in Hindi films and later withdrew from public life; she died in Kolkata in 2014.
The family house, a modest single-storey building with a courtyard, was used for other purposes for many years. After a long campaign by local people it was recovered and is now kept as a memorial, with photographs and material about her life and films.
For admirers from both Bengals it is a quiet place of pilgrimage — the small-town home behind one of the most famous faces in South Asian film.
Begin the morning at the memorial in Gopalpur.
Take a rickshaw to the 18th-century terracotta temple.
Fish and rice, then doi and sweets, in the town centre.
Go via Ishwardi to the Hardinge Bridge for the sunset over the Padma.
October to March, during the day
In Pabna town, at Gopalpur: a short rickshaw or auto-rickshaw ride from the town centre. Most rickshaw drivers know it.
