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Show Par Dacc reach the small papermaking villages in Munshiganj, Bengal, it wa necessary to start from Calcutta, and while the distance (about tw hundred and seventy-five miles) is not great, the journey involved man difficulties that can be appreciated only by those who have actually followe the route Th pape made i Munslm,anj is call ial, the nam of one of the old paper villages; the present-day papermaking centre i urmira, while the headquarters, where the finished paper is stored an sold, is near the market village of Autsahai." The closest post office is i the small town of Purapara, the whole community lying within the sectio called Dhairpar D trict. These details are given for the bene fit of anyone wishing to visit the handmade paper mills in south-centr 1, for, with the possible exception of Kashmir, this section is the mos interesting papermaking centre in India After acquiring a plentiful store of whole-wheat biscuit, milk chocolate and Vater, we boarded the night train at Calcutta. At five the followin ‘morning we reached Faridpur. At this station our journey by water bcgan and we went immediately aboard a good-sized river steamer that wa us through the n\er'lng:s (or Padma) to the town of Talatalla. was late in the afternoon when e arived at the fishing village of Talatalla and there, in an old ge used for the reception of passengers, we me our Bengal guide, \M. Kiran Chandsa Sen, head of the Indian Congres ‘movement in the district and one of the most cultured gentlemen I wa privileged to meet while in Bengal. At i for a smalle river boat that carried us on to another, but more primitive, fishing village where we were able to get aboard a still smaller river craft that conve us to the head of a narrow waterway, lying somewhere, I believe, bctwcc Ol Outsheat, s, Ausbabi [98 Digital image © 2005 MarriottLibrary Universit of Utah, All rihts reserved |