Basirhat -- Where I grew up : This small town, near the Bangladesh border in 24 Parganas (North), West Bengal, is the place where I grew up. I studied till the twelfth standard in the Basirhat High School, one of oldest school in India. As far as I remember, it was established in 1879 -- its diamond jubilee (100 years) was celebrated when I was a student. The river "Icchamati" flows by Basirhat. Though I grew up in semi-rural Bengal with a river as close, I never learnt to swim. But still the river had its strange attaction. Our school was just at a stone's throw distance from the river and I remember spending lot of our tiffin breaks in the banks of the river, not doing anything in particular, but just sitting there.
