Harisadhan Dasgupta

Director Harisadhan Dasgupta's father, Biraj Mohan Dasgupta, had come to Kolkata from Shillong and joined the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine. Before he became the first Indian director of the institute, Biraj built two houses in Kolkata. One was on Jatin Das Road. That house was somewhere between Lake View Road and Sarat Bose Road. The other house on 6 Southern Avenue was built in 1921. Harisadhan was born in 1924. He grew up in both these houses. After completing his studies in the US, Harisadhan stayed in Mumbai's Mulund, Bandra and Pedder Road. Subsequently, the Jatin Das Road house was sold off. The Dasguptas shifted to 6 Southern Avenue house. The ground floor of the house was rented out to Eveland Nursing Home. But the property didn't finally stay on with the Dasgupta family. Harisadhan moved on rent first to a house on Pratapaditya Road. Harisadhan's son, Raja, got married in that house. Then, the family shifted to another house on rent on Haripada Dutta Lane. Later, they moved to Kudghat and then to the current residence on Golf Club Road. During that time, Harisadhan decided to move far away from the maddening crowd to a house in Rajpur. The story goes that Harisadhan had a Man Friday named Durga for whom he bought a rickshaw and a uniform with an emblem on its pocket mentioning HSDG. Harisadhan would ride Durga's rickshaw when he had to come to Kolkata from Rajpur. This chapter too didn't last for long and Harisadhan shifted to Santiniketan where self-taught sculptor Jiban Duloi designed a one-room accommodation for him in his house.  This space was almost like Nandalal Bose's blackroom. This association didn't last long and he moved to another rented place in the heart of Santiniketan. Finally, he shifted to the house of a Muslim carpenter in a village in Bolpur. He would stay in that one room and teach local children. It was in his house that Harisadhan breathed his last.