Chitpur Road

roadThe spine of Black Town, and the road to the temple.

Description

The main artery running north out of Lal Dighi through Black Town toward Sutanuti, Barabazar and eventually Baranagar. It is older than the British city and it does not care about the British city. Pilgrim traffic has used this line north for centuries.

Investigators going to the temple by land must travel this road. There is no alternative that is not conspicuously an alternative.

Notable Features

• It is watched. Ghosh’s network notes Europeans moving north, and the notation is casual and complete. See Calcutta 1814, Surveillance Networks.
• The transition happens along it. Whitewash and order at the southern end, and by the northern end there is not another European face.
• Going by water is faster and less conspicuous, which is a genuine tactical choice the party can make and probably will not think of unaided.

The Senses

• Smell. Cooking oil, marigold, dung fires, drains, and incense in irregular bursts that come and go with the shopfronts.
• Sound. Continuous. Cart wheels, hawkers, temple bells, and conversation in a language no investigator speaks.
• Colour. Ochre, unfired brick, cloth in reds and oranges hung out over the street, and cooking smoke going blue at first-floor height.

Connections

• Lal Dighi at its southern end
• Barabazar
• Sutanuti
• Baranagar eight miles north

In Play

Chapter 4, Session 11 (11 October 1814) — the transition into Blacktown. Pratap and Adrien escorted Elizabeth Ashby up this road toward Sutanuti, and the point of transition was exact: the cobblestones gave way to mud and the grand plaster buildings of the British sector dissolved into thatched wooden houses along its length. Bennie and a group of local youths hired by Pratap cleared the way through the crowded lanes. See By Command of His Excellency.

Appearances