but a boat as a house on land,
is a new one for me, Mintu Roy, a man from Bengal’s Darjeeling district, has been
dreaming of living in a house shaped like the Titanic since he was a small
child growing up in Kolkata, today, at age 52, Roy still hasn’t given up on his
dream and he is working hard to finish his already impressive Titanic house in
Darjeeling,
“Most of my childhood was spent in Kolkata, around the
Bowbazar area,” Mintu Roy told Indian reporters visiting his home. “The time of
Durga Puja is one of my fondest memories. I watched people flocking to pandals
even days after the puja ended. It was one such pandal that set the spark to
make a memorable home for me and my family.”
Mintu Roy started working on his unique 3-storey house, He
has been at it for 13 years now, because he lacked the funds to complete it
sooner, but he hopes to one day live inside it with his family, “Though we have
not kept the record of how much money has been spent so far, I guess it should
not be less than ₹15 lakhs at today’s rate £14,703.32 or $18,283.58, ” Mintu’s wife, Iti, said. “We
were very poor and after the birth of my daughter, we started hiring land on
lease from others and started cultivating vegetables.”
the Titanic fan hopes to finish the house in the next few years and hopefully open a small restaurant or tea shop on the top floor, as an
extra source of income. Even in its current unfinished state, the 39-foot-long,
13-foot-wide, and 30-foot-high house has become a major tourist attraction in
the area, with reporters coming by regularly to snap photos and interview Mintu
about it, “This is my husband’s dream, so it is mine and the children’s. We all
want to help him accomplish that,” Mintu Roy’s supportive wife said, “It makes
us happy when people even from far-flung places visit our neighborhood and
click photos of the building. Journalists have been regularly visiting the
family and enquiring over the phone. I also want to help my father financially
to realize his dream come true,” Mintu’s son, Kiran, added, and let’s hope it is
more successful than its namesake!
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