AN ARMENIAN LINK, FADING

Indian Express
Jun 07, 2009 at 0245 hrs IST

>From a distance, it almost looks like a mosque, complete with a dome
and mini minar or chhatri-like projections on its four sides, of
which only two have survived. Its peeled-off plaster and dilapidated
state reveal layers of slim bricks dating back to the later Mughal
period. A closer look and one can spot a plaque announcing the Armenian
Association in Kolkata as the trustee of the place. A faded signboard
identifies the building as a nearly three-century-old Armenian chapel.

Located near the Kishanganj Railway Station in Sarai Rohilla area,
this is the only surviving Armenian place of worship in the city. Built
most likely around 1781-82, this rundown building and some tombs at
its back survived the Revolt of 1857 only to be encroached upon by
a colony that’s now called the ‘Christian Compound’.

The place was not always as congested as it is now. Professor
A. Dasgupta, a retired Delhi University teacher, has fond memories
of a quiet cemetery and a medieval structure adjoining it when she
stayed in the vicinity as a child. "The solitude, the all-pervading
silence and shaded greenery of the cemetery, the adjoining kuchcha
road with no habitation, except the railway colony, are part of my
cherished memory of the place. Every day, I was taken for a morning
walk to the place. Of all the graves, that of a six-year-old girl
used to haunt me-perhaps because I was a child myself," she says