The Fading Charms of Chandernaggar | The drive from Kolkata along the Grand Trunk Road is not for the faint-hearted. Swerving to avoid heavily laden trucks my Calcutta driver isn’t exactly sure where Chandannagar is but as the mid-morning sun slants over the gates of the town, we drive triumphantly through. In the brick work picked out by the light are three words: Liberté, Equalité, Fraternité. 

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Traffic passes the gates to the town of Chandannagar bearing the French inscription, 'Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite'
A statue of Liberty stands outside outside the museum in Chandannagar, originally the home of Joseph François Dupleix who was...
A boy cycles past old French colonial houses on the streets of Chandannagar
The ancient door of a house
A man walks past a ruined French Colonial building with his lunch pail
Two women sit by the ornate Pier on the Strand
Dilip Kumar Chaterjee, 77 reads the newspaper on the porch of his house that has been in his family for three generations
An old men joins another at a bench on the Strand by the Hooghley River
A man with a fine beard (and a remarkable resemblance to Rabindranath Tagore)
A nun walks to service at The Sacred Heart Church
The Nritya Gopal Smriti Mandir (known as the Old Library) and a statue of Rabindranath Tagore
Umesh Mishra, 26, a sarangi virtuoso, tunes his instrument before a concert at the Nrityagopal Smriti Mandir
Men making sweets at Seal Sweets in Chandannagar. The town is now famous for its confectionary
Langur monkeys amongst the tombs and graves in the French cemetery in Chandannagar
A young couple sit and talk together in the afternoon on the Strand by the Hoogley River
Pedestrians and cyclists on the Strand, the main French style avenue on the banks of the Hooghley River
A man and a woman do yogic exercises at dawn on the banks of Hooghley River, Chandannagar
The setting sun over the Hooghley River at Chandannagar