Abandoned mansions crumbling and fading under the glaring Bangladeshi sun line the once prosperous street in Painam Nagar, a forgotten village near Dhaka.
Built by wealthy Hindu merchants between 1895 and 1905, their former owners fled the country after England partitioned south Asia into Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan (with Pakistan receiving modern day Bangladesh, then called East Pakistan).
The few remaining Hindus were driven from their homes in 1964 during the anti-Hindu riots that preceded the Indo-Pakistan War.
Many owners left caretakers to watch over their homes, but over time, even the guardians abandoned the mansions. Squatters and possibly a caretaker or two still inhabit some of the homes, but their glory is long past and all that remains are dying skeletons silently enduring a forgotten past.
