Memoires of another day - XIV - by Arun Roy Mukherjee

XIV : Our visit to Bakreswar was another great occasion.. A bullock cart was hired and we started very early in the morning. From the main road a path went towards the main shrine. There were no houses, shops or anything near about. We saw only human bones lying on both side of the dirt path. We reached the temple complex. Inside the complex there was a pond, which was marked into three different parts. We were told that the temperature of the water in those three parts were different, though the water was of the same pond. On one such part there was a device constructed under the water (but visible from above) and it was said that only the very pious ones could pass through that device from one side to the other. We bathed in that pond. My father, who was a very good swimmer, passed through that under-water device many a times. We also found that the temperature of the water was different in different parts of the pond. (Much later, when I visited the place again in 1969/70 and in 1976, I found that getting into the pond inside the main temple complex and bathing in it was prohibited. Instead, two separate ponds were constructed outside the main temple complex for bathing). We enjoyed our visit very much and came back before sunset. A few days thereafter my father took me to witness a football match played at a nearby playground in which the two Calcutta giants of those days Calcutta F.C and Dalhousie A.C participated.