Heartbroken: Driven by break-ins, swimmer Bula Chowdhury mulls selling ‘dream home’ in Hooghly
Times of India | 5 January 2026
Kolkata: Shattered by the repeated break-ins at her Hindmotor house in Hooghly — the one she would often dub as her ‘dream home' — ace swimmer, Bula Chowdhury, wants to sell it now.
Though she is known for her steely resolve that helped her become the first woman to cross seven seas across five continents, she is finding it difficult to cope with the recent break-in, a fourth incident in over a decade.
"I fought against treacherous weather in long-distance swimming and against fierce competition in the pool. I have no qualms admitting that these petty thieves took the fight out of me," Chowdhury told TOI on Sunday.
Chowdhury and her husband Sanjib Chakraborty had built the Hindmotor house in 1995 after securing a loan from Tata Steel, where she worked back then.
"It was a dream come true. Our children were born there. That my parents' home is just 10 minutes' walk from the house was convenient as well," she said.
On Saturday, the couple had walked into the house near Uttarpara to find it completely ransacked despite police patrol at night on the street outside.
The policemen were deployed by the Chandannagar Police Commissionerate after the previous burglary that occurred five months ago. Back then, all her medals, taps from bathrooms, and utensils from the prayer room were stolen. Police managed to recover the medals that she subsequently carried to her flat at Kasba in south Kolkata, where she currently resides. "Though we shifted to Kolkata, the Hindmotor house was always our home. There is a lot of sentiment attached to it and I never dreamt of selling it," she said.
The house was burgled twice earlier in 2014. Those thefts, which took place seven months apart, led to the loss of jewellery, electronic goods, some medals, and other valuables.
Chowdhury, who smashed several records in her illustrious career, did not bargain for the dubious record of being the owner of the most burgled house in the town or perhaps anywhere else in the state.