Urban is Rural

The purpose of the tour to Ghatal Municipality, with some public representatives, was to visit a few important sites where development schemes are to be taken up. The town itself appears to be a part of a rural landscape. A host of muddy water bodies in and around the town provide water for bathing, washing and cooking utensils for the people living nearby. Bheri Balaram Kundu, as it reads in land records, is the name of a village comprising all three houses situated on the bundh of a bheri, a large tank. Kalipada Samanta’s house is on top of the bundh, which widens to about 30–35 ft before narrowing again in the place where Swapan Dolui’s house stands. A boro bundh is constructed almost entirely of sand and sandy-earth taken from the side of the river. The face of the bundh is firmed up with thick rolls of straw tied together and then nailed into the bundh with bamboo staves.